By Michael Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 18, 2008

BEIJING, Aug. 17 -- Mary Whipple invited the other members of the U.S. women's eight rowing crew to her home in Princeton, N.J., for one final "boat meeting" before the team came to China. The highlight of the evening came when they watched in awe a video of the 1984 women's eight, which came from behind to defeat the favored Romanians in Lake Casitas, Calif. It was the first Olympic gold for the U.S. women's rowing team.

"It was really inspiring to see those women, so cool when they were neck-and-neck," Whipple said. "That's what we kind of envisioned" happening on Sunday.

But when coxswain Whipple guided the crew at Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park, that vision couldn't come close to matching the final result. Leading wire-to-wire, the United States easily won its first women's eight gold medal in 24 years, beating second-place Netherlands by 1.88 seconds and ending Romania's string of three Olympic gold medals.

"We were just on a mission," Whipple said. "We knew we could produce a gold medal winning night. It was just, 'Can we do it on that day?' We just decided, we can do this. We wanted to make our mark in history."

The race was historic for other reasons, because it was also the last time Whipple would share the same skinny boat as middle rower Anna Cummins. Their 10-year partnership on the women's eight produced three world championship titles, six World Cup victories, and now two Olympic medals. Whipple, Cummins and stroker Caryn Davies were the only holdovers from the 2004 silver medal team in Athens.

Since Cummins and Whipple first competed together as freshmen at Washington in 1998, Cummins has never been in a race without Whipple as coxswain. Cummins (formerly Mickelson) is retiring to open a chiropractic and wellness center with her husband, former 1997 rowing world champion Bob, whom she married last December. "It's unbelievable the way God has blessed me with her for 10 years," Cummins, 28, said of Whipple. "It's like we're connected like sisters, I guess."

Having never raced before college, Cummins said she leaned heavily on Whipple when she started. "She relied on me, like, 'Is this good?' I was, 'Yeah, that's good.' She grew into becoming an amazing rower," said Whipple, who doesn't have any plans to retire. "It's a dream come true to win a gold medal with Anna Mickelson, well now Anna Cummins. It is the perfect ending to a great relationship."

Cummins said nothing could persuade her to come back and make another run for a medal in 2012. "I'm going to cheer the rest of these girls on," she said with a laugh. "I'm married. I'm going to go have kids and cheer."

The U.S. men's eight wasn't able to repeat as gold medalists on Sunday, but was elated to come away with a bronze medal after starting the 2,000-meter race in sixth through the first 500. The men rallied to fourth after 1,000 meters, then third after 1,500 and nearly caught Britain for the silver, coming .23 of a second short. Canada won the gold medal.

"We dropped a little too much at the start, but we weren't too worried about it," said stroker Bryan Volpenhein, one of two members of the crew from the gold medal team in Athens. "I'm not disappointed with bronze. It's always good to come away with a medal."

The U.S. men's quadruple sculls, which included Sam Stitt of McLean and Jamie Schroeder, who trains at Potomac Boat Club, finished fifth, as did the U.S. women's quadruple sculls.

China won its first rowing gold medal in the women's quad sculls. China crossed the finish at 6 minutes 16.06 seconds, and Jin Ziwei, Tang Bin, Xi Aihua and Zhang Yangyang started blowing kisses and raising their arms. Zhang and Xi were so overcome with emotion that they started crying uncontrollably as the home crowd roared. "At the final point, when we reached the finishing line, I was very, very excited and I thought to myself, 'Finally we have won this gold for China,' " Zhang said through an interpreter.

The U.S. women's eight was equally emotional, splashing water and hugging each other, after crossing the finish. Halfway through the race, Whipple provided the final, rousing push when shouted back at her crew: "This is for the 1984 girls. We've got to do them proud."