Skip to main contentOlympic athlete Lisa Schlenker was always a jock: track, soccer, skiing, softball. Growing up in Lake Oswego (where her mom was the mayor for eight years) and graduating from Portland State University in 1986, Schlenker took up rowing at 26, a relatively late age, because she wanted to try something new. In a sport where athletes don't make NBA bucks, Schlenker makes ends meet working at a Home Depot in Portland and on a farm in Princeton, N.J., the city where she trains for half of the year.
Schlenker, 39, is a rowing machine--she's been a contender for the World Championship six times--but Athens marks her first trip to the Olympics. She is competing for the United States in the lightweight women's double scull, where two women, neither weighing more than 125 pounds, row 2,000 meters with two blades apiece.
Last week, she took some time away from the water to give us a peek behind the scenes at the United States' camp outside of Schinias, Greece.
Monday, Aug. 16, 8:37 pm Athens time:
All races have been cancelled. The seasonal winds, called meltemia, have now whipped the waters into treacherous waves. With the meltemia howling outside, the U.S. rowing team gets deep into a two-hour-long game of Monopoly that Schlenker describes as "highly competitive."
In the United States, rowing is a low-rent sport. Big names, sponsorships, advertising--they don't exist. "We don't get paid, we don't have sponsorships," says Schlenker. "We compete for the purity of it, for the passion. Everyone is out there busting their gut."
But Schlenker thinks the sport may get more attention in the United States after the American team shocked the world with a stellar performance last week. "I guarantee you with the men's and women's eights both winning their heat in world-record times, rowing is going to take off in the U.S.," she says.
"Is it going to be as big as basketball or baseball in the U. S.? No. Because it's not a cool thing to do. But that's what makes it unique. The immense teamwork you create when you are a rower, the sacrifices you make. For whatever reason a person comes to the sport of rowing, it's going to change their life."
After her races are over, Schlenker hopes to move to the Olympic Village and get tickets to some events. "It's been great to watch the other sports. Watching table tennis, I've been amazed how small the table is, and all the sweating."
Thursday, Aug. 19, 8:15 pm Athens time:
Disappointment rings in Schlenker's voice. After a solid second-place finish in Wednesday's repechage (the intermediate round between heats and semifinals that gives crews who did not qualify for the semifinals another chance to make them), Schlenker and her partner, Stacey Borgman, faced rowing powerhouses from Germany, Romania and the Netherlands in the semifinals. During the tense six minutes and 51 seconds, the lead switched back and forth several times. The teams fought inch by inch in a 2,000-meter race where a single stroke can make or break you. In the end, Romania came in first, the Netherlands grabbed second, Germany took third and Schlenker's boat came in fourth--just 0.73 seconds behind the Germans.
But Schlenker is prepared to bounce back. In two days, she will race again, in the final with the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place teams from the other semifinal round. Back at the condos, the teams watch swimming on Eurosport.
Monday, Aug. 23, 6:14 pm Athens time:
Success. Schlenker went into Saturday's B Final thinking, "You might as well make a statement." They did just that, snatching the lead from Britain after 500 meters and holding on to finish almost 3 seconds in front of Canada and 6 seconds ahead of Britain.
With the racing behind her, Schlenker becomes a normal tourist. She sits on a ferry on her way back from the island of Andros, where she has spent the day sightseeing with her parents. She moved into the athletes' village yesterday, a different world from the quiet condominiums where she spent the past week. "It's a huge contrast," she says. "It's pretty cool to look at all the other athletes, whether you've seen them on TV, read about them or have no clue who they are, and think, 'Damn, they must be a diver,' or 'I wonder what sport they are based on their body type.'"
It's easy to see why Schlenker has made it this far in elite rowing: Naturally competitive and hardworking, she makes no excuses for her performance but still makes it her main goal to have a good time. Did anything in Athens surprise her? "It's the Olympic Games," she answers with a laugh. "Anything can happen."
WWeek 2015