U.S. women's eight rows to silver

By ANN GREEN

Gannett News Service

SCHINIAS, Greece - A silver medal for rower Caryn Davies and her boatmates in the U.S. women's eight should liven up their e-mail over the next few days.

``Last week I got a lot of e-mail from friends and family saying we can't find you on TV. Hopefully now that we've won a medal, they will,'' said Davies, 22, of Ithaca, N.Y.

Sunday was a huge day for Davies and the U.S. rowing team at Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Center. First, the U.S. rowed to silver in the women's eight. Twenty minutes later, the men's eight claimed their first gold in 40 years.

Prior to Sunday, the strongest showing by the Americans in the eights at the Olympics was in 1984 when the women took gold and the men silver.

The women were beaten for gold by defending Olympic champion Romania, which had a time of 6:17.70. The U.S. completed the 2,000-meter course in 6:19.56 - beating third-place Netherlands by .29.

The Americans led halfway into the 2,000-meter race by .26 but faded before 1,500 meters.

Both the U.S. men and women set world best times in their heats a week earlier when tailwinds flogged the rowing center, located 25 miles from Athens near the Aegean Sea.

Davies, 22, said the effort Sunday by the two American teams is important to the future of rowing in the U.S.

Davies, a first-time Olympian, is a graduate of Ithaca High School and is in her last year at Harvard, where she is pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology.

She was part of the first U.S. junior women's crew to win a gold medal at the junior world championships in 2000 and won the 2003 NCAA title in the women's varsity eight.

``The fact that we're doing well now hopefully means more people will stay in the sport longer,'' she said.

``That's one reason the Romanians have so much experience and have won so many medals. They really have that support from their country, and they get paid more than we do, I believe. That makes it easier to keep coming back and win medals.

The women's boat also included Kate Johnson (Portland, Ore.), Samantha Magee (Simsbury, Conn.), Megan Dirkmaat (San Jose, Calif.), Alison Cox (Turlock, Calif.), Anna Mickelson (Bellevue, Wash.) Laurel Korholz (La Jolla, Calif.), Lianne Nelson (Seattle) and coxswain Mary Whipple (Orangevale, Calif.).