Take one expert para rowing coach and two skilled para athletes, and what do you get? A winning team.

Alice follows the double at a slight distance, wheeling her launch around now to move from starboard to port. “Match hands out of bow,” she calls to the scullers. “Stay long.”

The lives of one expert para rowing coach and two skilled athletes intertwine in the push for excellence this fall

Laura and Russell were born with physical disadvantages which have influenced the course their lives have taken. With Olympic-skilled rowing — and the help of Coach Alice — they’re taking back their lives.

Tall and sinewy, Russell Gernaat looks out over the deserted boatyard at the late afternoon water beyond. “I’d always wanted to row,” he says. “I'm talking, you know, ten years or more.”

Coach Alice Henderson strides across the ramp towards the 2x moored on the floating dock. “Picking up where we left off,” she says to the rower putting oars to oar locks and the rower she’s guiding across the dock. “Connection and catches.”