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 scullers move in unison, arms and body forward, body and arms back. Up to the catch, blades through the water, release. The movement is easy, familiar. Unless you look closely, you may not realize what’s very different in this boat: these scullers are rowing “dead slide.” The seat is fixed. There is no power coming from the legs, the traditional powerhouse of rowing. All the work instead is in the upper body.
This is para rowing, and this is no leisurely afternoon row. Scullers Russell Gernaat and Laura Goodkind are in training.
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