The course Twin Cities native Micah Boyd chartered to land him on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Rowing team started in 1997 when he was a sophomore at Central Senior High in Saint Paul.
Micah Boyd, 26, a 2008 bronze medalist
for the U.S. Olympic Rowing team, stands
in front of the National Stadium in Beijing, China.
Photo provided by Marcus McElhenney.
Eleven years later, the 26-year-old rower sat in the fourth seat of the U.S. Men’s Eight shell, or boat, as it battled with Great Britain and Canada in the final 500 meters of the 2,000 meter race. The U.S. team had the fastest time in the final 500 meters at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Bejing, and took the bronze medal.
The eight is the most prestigious rowing event to race in. It is an event in which eight people row together, each with one oar. The eight is the fastest boat in the sport of rowing.
“The last 500 meters had grandstands on both sides so it would get pretty loud towards the end of the race,” Boyd said by phone.
In those grandstands he had his parents, his aunt, some friends and his twin brother, Anders, cheering him on. The Olympian got in to the sport of rowing because of his twin.
In the fall of his sophomore year at Central High School in Saint Paul, Micah’s twin brother Anders took up rowing. By the winter, Anders had gotten Micah down to the boathouse with him. The brothers rowed together through high school under the coaching of Miriam Baer, who still coaches high school rowers at The Minnesota Boat Club in downtown St. Paul. During their time there they won medals at regattas, or races, such as The USRowing Youth Invitational.
Both Micah and Anders Boyd attended the University of Wisconsin Madison and both made the rowing team together there.
Besides being a hugely physically and mentally demanding sport on its own, rowing and starting college is extremely stressful. Boyd said that when he started college, it was a big transition. “You want to quit because there’s a whole new workload,” Boyd said.
But he didn’t drop rowing, and “after college it was easier to just manage it and not think about quitting, but just kind of continuing going on and realizing it’s your goal to make the Olympics,” he said.
After their time rowing with the Madison crew, Anders was ready to move on to other things. But Micah wanted more. He went to train out east in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Athletic Club.
He trained in Pennsylvania for three years, then was invited to train with the national team. His list of national first-place titles is extensive, including double sculls at the 2000 USRowing Youth Invitational, the four at the U.S. National Championships, and the pair at the first 2008 National Selection Regatta. According to the USRowing bio of Boyd, his most memorable pre-Olympic win was beating a Harvard team during the 2002 Eastern Men’s Sprints. Rowing was the first intercollegiate sport, according to USRowing, with the first race taking place between Yale and Harvard Universities in 1852.
“I ended up training at Princeton because it’s where the national team trains. I got invited to go there and it was Olympic year so then I decided I might as well go with [the national team] because that way I’d have a better shot at making the Olympics,” Boyd said.
In Princeton, the team trained almost every day, going out two, sometimes three times a day. They averaged 11 to 13 practices a week. Boyd made it through the grueling process of Olympic trials.
When asked about racing in China, Micah said: “Once you get down to the basics of it, it’s any other 2K course with buoys.”
This October, USRowing named Boyd its Male Athlete of the Year. This is an award that is voted on by your peers, this year the 2008 Olympic Team. “With the award being voted on by your peers, it’s great to know that the other guys thought you put in your best effort,” Boyd said, according to a press release from US Rowing.
“It’s pretty surprising. I haven’t been with the group of guys that long, just since September of 2007. It’s nice to be recognized by such a great a group of veterans. It was a tough year of training and to win the award is quite amazing,” he said.
Micah is not sure what his future plans for rowing are yet. He plans on taking a year off, staying in shape, and then reevaluating whether or nor he wants to go back to serious training again.
“Next year I’ll decide whether I want to keep rowing or not,” Boyd said.
Here in Saint Paul though, we can’t help but hope to see this hometown hero sweeping down the final stretch of river in another Olympics.
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