Olympia Area Rowing competing at U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships 

Olympia Area Rowing is competing in the U.S. Rowing Youth National Championships this week in Sarasota, Florida.  

The team had a boys quad, girls double and girls single boat qualify for the championships, after placing in the top four of their respective events at a regional competition.  

Victoria Tkacz, head coach of Olympia Area Rowing, works with two middle school coaches and five high school coaches to lead the youth program.  

In preparation for the national competition, the athletes practiced six days a week, which can sometimes include multiple practices a day.  

“They’re going to school all day long, and then they’re coming here for practices, doing all of their homework after practice, and then going back to school the next day. It’s a lot,” Tkacz said.  

In between the national and regional competition, athletes had two and a half weeks to practice. In addition to rowing, they spend time preparing for the workout, including a long water warm up before starting.  

“There is a lot of prep time to make sure they aren’t going to get hurt,” Tkacz said. “Especially right now, we are doing shorter intervals but higher intensity, so it is a lot of warm up prep time.” 

There are expected to be more than 4,000 athletes, 1,000 coaches, and 5,000 spectators at the competition.  

The Championships are being live streamed on Overnght.