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Two great options, and one tough choice

Maine's Elle Logan must choose between the U.S. national rowing team and finishing school on time.

By Mike Lowe mlowe@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

For Elle Logan, life has always been about choices.

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Elle Logan, second from left, was on the women's eight rowing team that won gold in Beijing in 2008. That fact doesn't assure her a place in the world championships.

Courtesy U.S. Rowing

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Elle Logan can't row in the world championships this fall and take classes at Stanford.

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After she helped the U.S. women's eight crew win the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, she had the choice to continue training or head back to Stanford University for her sophomore year. She chose school.

Now she faces a similar situation. Logan, the 22-year-old Boothbay Harbor native, is currently training with the U.S. national team in Princeton, N.J., hoping to earn a spot in the women's eight for the world championships, which will be held at Lake Karapiro in New Zealand Oct. 31-Nov. 7.

Those dates would interfere with the fall semester of Logan's senior year at Stanford.

"Right now I'm on schedule to graduate next spring," said Logan, a history major. "That's the big goal. I really want to graduate in 2011."

And because of that, she isn't sure what she will do if she makes the world team. Normally the world championships are held in early summer. But because they're in New Zealand this year -- in the Southern Hemisphere, where it will be late spring -- the championships are held later.

Participating in the world championships "would require me taking the fall off," said Logan. "And I'm still undecided about what I'm going to do. If I go back to school, I'll be in shape (for Stanford's rowing team). If I stay here, that's fine too.

"I've worked out a lot of different plans. Anything I choose, or anything that happens, it will all work out. My main goal is definitely the 2012 Olympics (in London). I'm going to try to do whatever is best for me to get there. If that's going back to school and finish, or trying to make the New Zealand team, I'm still undecided."

If she goes back to school in the fall and graduates in 2011, that would give her a year-and-a-half to train for the London Olympics -- the same amount of time she had to train for Beijing.

"Right now I'm just taking it day by day," she said.

The selections for the women's eight will be made on Sept. 20 -- the first day of classes for Stanford. The national team will be completed on Oct. 2.

For now she's just training as hard as she can, along with Anna Goodale of Camden, another member of the Beijing Olympics gold-medal winning team who is trying to make the world championship crew. And Tom Terharr, coach of the U.S. women's rowing team, knows exactly what they can do.

"In the grand scheme of things, both Anna and Elle are doing real well," said Terharr. "It's all a matter of their fitness. After the Olympics, there's always a little lull in training. You keep training, but not at the same level. Now they're starting to pick it up, you can see it now.

"And if they get in shape, I know they can perform. And they're both great boat people."

The team practices two to three times a day, for a total of 41/2 hours. Logan said it is an adjustment, even though she competes at Stanford.

"I do the best I can with school and the Stanford team and everything else there is," she said. "But when I come here, all I do is row."

Asked how far behind in training she was when she arrived, Logan said she wasn't sure.

"I go to school during the day every day, instead of working out and napping and recovering, then do my homework at night," she said. "School is a full-time job when you're in college. And rowing is a full-time job when you're here."

The U.S. is not only the defending Olympic champion, but the four-time defending world champion. They won the 2009 world title with five members of the Olympic gold-medal winners on board.

Terharr said that group is joined by several young, hungry rowers, making the U.S. team very deep -- and competitive.

"I don't know if we're more talented," he said. "But we have a lot more depth. Getting into any of these priority boats is harder than it was.

"There's been quite a few Olympians not making these boards. It's a natural cycle. The good ones and tough ones stick it out and end up being better."

Logan understands that.

"Things change and things happen all the time," she said. "I'm just trying to focus on every practice, every day. I'm just working really hard every day to see where I am, where that puts me the next day."

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:

mlowe@pressherald.com