++ BEIJING BLOG 

Our final weeks training in Australia were fairly uneventful. The media and public interest was ever increasing. But there are more interesting things in Beijing.

When we arrived, it was unacceptable that we unload any of our own bags or carry them to our rooms. We were motioned through to get on a intra-village bus that took us 400m down the road past gardeners tending to every garden bed, large groups volunteers marching up and down, guards and attendants everywhere who seem to be there just to say 'Ni Hao'.The cleaners came to clean including mop our apartment twice today, even though we hadn't yet been residents for more than 24 hours. Again we tried to communicate that it was unnecessary, but it wasn't open for discussion. A similar attitude has been taken across Beijing with every minor problem being solved by throwing people at it. One of the best examples of this is the people sweeping the highways (which were already clean) on our way out to the rowing course (The trip was 40min long).

The village is pretty exceptional, as I think everyone expected it would be considering the amount of resources being thrown at the event. Everything is very slick, especially the apartments. All the apartments have wireless access, TV's with international stations including HBO! Every effort has been made to make the village western.

The countries all signify their presence in certain regions of the village by flying flags off balconies. This is all seems pretty standard, so some countries go one step further by having larger (the height of buildings) or more flags. However Australia has gone all the way and created it's own picnic barbecue area including a big screen TV to watch any Australian sporting events (or Sunrise) out the front of our apartments, the only one in the village.

Contrary to everyone's belief that Beijing was going to be overly polluted and smoggy, our first two days here had perfectly clear blue skies and I didn't see anyone reaching for their inhalers. The temperature was quite pleasant also. Until we had to train at mid day, when we had a much tougher time of it. The 3^rd day had much lower visibility (at around 750m) but I suspect this was more to do with humidity than it was pollution.

Some of the great kit items included this year are a legionnaires hat (think back to primary school and 'no hat, no play'), bandanna, bum bag and a large range of green and gold Lycra. I'm not sure why, but a lot of people in the village were staring at me when I went for a run around the village in Lycra pants , singlet and bandanna on the weekend. Particularly from Australians. We also got dealt out the much anticipated Opening Ceremony gear which we have been told not to comment on and to keep hidden,

One of the stranger items of team kit comes from the Swiss, who have electric scooters to transport them around the village. After all it is a long treacherous 200m journey to the dining hall. The dutch also have orange team bikes too.

Today one of the many freebies going around were tee-shirts from UNIFI and Coke made of 5 plastic bottles. The bottles make up only 50% of the shirt with the other 50% being cotton, which I thought was a bit misleading but it is definitely a good initiative. They are not as bad as you would expect, they do smell a lot like paint though but that may wash out.

Upon arriving in the Beijing airport I noticed that Lenovo China had finally released their ad campaign about me. The campaign is entitled, “Lenovo, powering the World's Biggest Idea” which I thought may be a tad pretentious, labeling me as the World's Biggest Idea. Although I am a big idea (at least that is what I have been told) and Lenovo is powering me, I think it would be hard to prove I am the biggest. And there are other good ideas out there too, such as reducing our footprint on the planet, or finding another planet to leave our footprint on, or even the Olympics. None the less, I'm proud to be powered by Lenovo and I hope you all support them for supporting the idea of Jeremy Stevenson.

We all had a big laugh this morning when we saw a picture for News Ltd that shows JT in a position I'm sure everyone in Australia is familiar with by now. There is some missing context in the picture; we weren't rowing and he was cracking his back. When we saw the cameras, I knew it would be in the media the next day, I told him to get up. My twin Andrew Stevenson also made some comments... but he missed the bus home and I no one has heard from him since.

++ JULY BLOG

After a couple of days home seeing Sister, Ma & Pa Stevenson in Perth followed by 2 chilly weeks in Canberra, we are now training up on the Sunshine Coast. It is great to be back in the warmer climate and nearer the ocean (It reminds me of home). What is greater though is being able to comfortably jump in the sea in the middle of winter. The climate is also far more functional for outdoor sports.

Training in general has been good, there have been limited injuries. Unfortunately this is a particularly plain part of our preparation and there isn't a lot of interesting stuff in our training apart from the occasional media circus, which means there also is not a lot to write about. We are trialling some new methods to help acclimatise in advance and some cooling methods for Beijing. We just trained in 32 degrees, 90 percent humidity and long tights and found we are sweating at >4L/hr. There was a nice layer of moisture over everything in the room. It is unlikely that will be case in Beijing at all considering the long sleeves and no airflow.

While I was in Canberra, Mark Beretta came down to visit me for a Sunrise interview that will air a week before the Olympics. It was all a lot of fun until Mark threw down the challenge of a 1000m Ergometer which was then negotiated back to 750m. Although I tried to convince him that this was not going to be as fun as he expected, Mark insisted. I had been hearing stories of a previous ergo challenge from Kochie and Mark which had left Athen's Pair Drew Ginn and James Tomkins rattled, along with Mark commenting  that he had been training for this day. Both left me concerned that it would be a little more serious than I had hoped, James Tomkins even offered to bet his seat in the 8 on the results (although he later rescinded this offer). I'm not going to spoil anything however there was an appearance by staunch Beretta supporters the Women's 8 and I finished convinced that it would be the last ergo we would both do for a while.

However the next day, Mark called me to tell me in a bizarre stoic act he had jumped back on the ergo to do a 1000m race. If my recent team mates have been anything to go by, Mark could well pop up in a  boat in London 2012.

Following the Olympic Qualification Regatta in Poznan, Australia has now qualified every boat class for the Olympics. It is apparently the first time in post-East German history that any country has managed this, which definitely bodes well for the Australian medal count in August. Our counterparts in the Men's Four continued fine form leading from start to finish even after Matt Ryan had to step out because of gastro, being replaced by Terrence Alfred. Terrence also later went on to finish 4^th in the pair with Karsten in the ensuing World Cup.

My ex-rowing partner and turned coach David 'Prag' McGowan also managed to qualify his crew (he started coaching them less than 6 weeks ago), the Dutch Men's Eight who will now be competing against us next month at the Olympics. For the last 4 years since Athens, it has been unlikely that they would qualify for Beijing but as I always tell 'Prag', 'Magic Happens'. It is pretty ironic to think that 2 years ago we were rowing together for Australia in the eight now for the first time we are opposition.

People have been looking for all the unique things to do after we have finished rowing in Beijing, one suggestion (from Dutch rowers...) that came up which we wont be pursued to far was a trip to restaurant Guo-li-zhuang (you'll have to search for it) which serves some pretty out there cuisine. Other possible excursions considered is a trip to see wild giant pandas, the terracotta soldiers, the great wall of China or perhaps Lenovo's Corporate R&D center based in Beijing to see the cutting edge of design and technology.

++ JUNE BLOG

If you read the last blog, you'd know we have been training on Lago di Varese for the past month in northern Italy.

Unfortunately for us the first couple of weeks here was pretty poor weather, it would've rained more in this time than it would in a year in most places in Australia.

But the weather is playing ball now, to the point where you can see the snowy peaks of the Swiss Alps. We have had a couple of injuries in the boat as usual.

Sam Loch rolled one ankle (playing touch, not in the boat) and then, because he didn't want to miss out on a 'pump up'. Sam Conrad has had on going rib issues, which are in vogue for rowers at the moment. Everyone else has just had general sore backs or overuse injuries.

Training has been good though and we have been achieving good results in training.

Coffee, Pasta, Prosciutto and Pizzas have become our staple diet. Which is convenient as there are some of my favorite consumables. Some of the girls who are allergic to gluten aren't enjoying it as much though.

As is the fashion in Varese (Hosting the UCI World Championships in a couple of months), we have been cycling an increasing amount to add some extra volume to our training regime.

Also, our physiologist Tony Rice who is an avid cyclist, has designed our training program so he has his own bike gang. One major part of that is our weekly hill climbs where we find one of the many local mountains and see if we can make it to the top.

So far, we have summited Campo del Fiore and San Antonio both >1km ascents. Our rides have taken us all around the Varese region including to Laveno on Lake Magiore, which has become a regular coffee stop (as pictured).

Occasionally if we behave and train hard our coach Brian lets us out into the wider population for social excursions. One of these excursions we regularly engage in is a trip to a Pizza place in Varese called Del La Motte that serves 'Giganti' pizzas (as pictured with 3 seat James Chapman, who has an average sized head).

It has become a tradition for team members to try to consume at least one a year. Almost everyone struggles towards the end, but it always seems shortly after people still have room for Gelati.

On our way to Lucern we also stopped off at the Gotthard pass for a play in the snow. In true Aussie form we were dressed for the beach, in board shorts and singlet before people went clamoring for warmer clothing after someone mentioned it was -7 degrees. The locals were appalled in our dress.

Racing in Lucerne was average. Similar to Munich we trained through the regatta however ended up 4^th but still (somehow) retained the World Cup leaders Jersey. It was a pretty depressing time for us, as we simply had a terrible row and underperformed under the increased stress of having our main competition, the Canadians racing.

Luckily, it wasn't the Olympics and we have identified our problems and are dealing with them, so come August we should have things sorted. Unfortunately we have to head back to Australia soon and aren't going to be around for the final World Cup to rectify the situation and to also defend our leaders jersey.

Just before the next world cup is one regatta I am glad we are not going to is the Olympic Selection Regatta. Unfortunately Australia's Mens Four, made up of some fellow rowers at the AIS (James Marburg, Cameron McKenzie McHarg, Matt Ryan, Francis Hegerty) has to qualify there.

But judging on recent form they shouldn't have a problem after they won the World Cup in Lucerne.

Australia must also qualify the Women's Single and Double which also shouldn't be a problem.

Another Aussie competing to go to the Olympics there, is David McGowan (4^th in the Men's Four, Athens '04), my old partner (rowing), good friend and fellow Perth rower who moved to Sweden and then Amsterdam to be with his children and partner (life). 'Prag' (as he likes me to call him) has taken up coaching while he is over there and has had some incredible results in the short time (Won a Gold Medal at last year's World Championships) he has been there and was recently given the position coaching the Dutch Men's 8 to get them qualified.

Getting an Olympic crew after 2 years coaching and at his age is unheard of in international rowing.

As a matter of interest one of my fellow crew mates, James 'Chapstick' Chapman has also been commissioned to write a blog over at The Roar.

While the blog isn't written on a Lenovo Ideapad and hosted or supported by Sunrise, it somehow overcomes these deficiencies to be quite a good read.

Although I often catch Chappo staring at the Ideapad when he is trying to write his blogs and I suspect he has a private collection of Melissa and Kochie pictures.

Next, I am heading home to see the family for a couple of days and then back to Canberra which promises to be painfully cold and then the Sunshine Coast and Sydney to try to acclimatise for Beijing.

 ++ MAY BLOG

Our international season has started off well claiming Gold in Munich.

Proving to others but more so ourselves that we have moved on from 2007 and that we have what it takes to be contenders in Beijing. It was a rather unexciting boat race for others, we led from start to finish pushing out to a boat length, when anyone tried to push up, we would push back. In the process we beat 2 medalists from last year's World Championships; Great Britain and Germany even with the course heavily favoring the lanes (these were seeded) to our left China (3^rd) and Britain (2^nd) due to a very strong cross head wind.

It's not like we were completely disadvantaged though.

For one, the main competition Canadians (2007 World Champions) were not present and we had a slightly better lane than Germany.

As was our plan we trained through the first World Cup, giving it the lowest priority in the scheme of things (the priority obviously being Beijing).  We were still at full work load 2 days prior to our heat race, 5 days before the final and had no race practice in the lead up.

What wasn't part of our plan was the sickness that swept through our camp. We lost James Chapman (3 seat) to the flu while most of us had colds or stomach problems to some extent. Karsten Fosterling our reserve stepped in.

My super-ladies in the Women's 8 also had an excellent performance in the race before us, blowing the field apart and taking the race comfortably. There was also a bronze medal in the Mens Double of Scott Brennan and David Crawshay rowing from the worst lane.

While almost every other Australian crew made the final despite being similarly effected by illness. Very positive indeed.

I celebrate with blocks of chocolate everyday... tonight we are celebrating with steins. Tomorrow we are off to Italy for an intensive training block and then the 2^nd World Cup in Lucerne.

I personally despise air travel, I am overly paranoid about sickness being spread on planes, I don't like the hours of time essentially wasted, I don't like dry air conditioning, I don't like being still while fitting my frame into most plane seats is always pretty tight.

But recently I had a very different air travel experience that briefly caught my interest. On Saturday the 3^rd, our intended departure date, I was sitting in Perth Airport with 3 other rowers (Amber Bradley, Scott Brennan and Dave Crawshay) locked down due to a 'serious security threat', which conveniently happened to be baggage on our plane. All we could do was laugh. We were stuck in various parts of the airport as the AFP and hundreds of police rushed around. Finally after being evacuated to 4 different places we were simply told to 'walk down the road a kilometer and go home' our baggage still at the airport and no word of a flight. A serious anti-climax for someone who has grown up with action movies and video games.

We didn't even get to see anything happen!

Interestingly enough, talking to the extra police contingent stationed at the airport the next day, the standard phrase seemed to be “that they could neither confirm or deny anything”, not even what they had told us the night before.

Nonetheless, after calling the airline a couple of times we were back on a flight to Europe at 9am then 11am and then 1pm the next day (lack of punctuality is another thing I hate about air travel). But how often do you get to be involved in an airport evacuation because of  'suspicious unidentified baggage' on your plane?

We are wary that this is only the beginning and while we couldn't have asked for a better result to begin with but there is a lot of work to do yet.

WCSN has the footage for free. The eight is on around 1:26 on the 'late' video. Click here to watch >>

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++ APRIL BLOG

Hello there,

For those who don't know, the final rowing Olympic selection trials started last week.

It’s a bit conflicting not being able to go, on the one hand there would be some awesome racing with people putting everything on the line but then being selected already also has it's perks. Having watched the swimming trials on TV recently it is amazing the contrast.

“To me the bleeding hearts who are calling for an Olympic boycott, are some of the most selfish people out there.”

Selection in rowing is a quite a surreal experience, you are racing all the people you having be training with around you, you don't finish a race knowing you are selected or not, there is no knowing what day you get to stop racing and even when that happens you can leave the regatta not knowing whether you are selected.

Decisions are made behind closed doors where a number of your performances are all weighted differently, you get told who you are rowing with less than 24 hours before you need to race and if you get an announcement that isn't vague, it usually means you are being sent home.

Finally when it is over there is usually no one around to enjoy the moment with.

I hate to get political and I hardly think this is the avenue to express it but something has really bothered me lately and it is something quite relevant. 

I'm bothered by people calling for a boycott to the Olympics and people attempting to disrupt the torch relay based on the problems in Tibet. I'm not disputing the underlying issues in Tibet but rather how people are dealing with it.

To me the bleeding hearts who are calling for an Olympic boycott, are some of the most selfish people out there.

 They are demanding other people to throw away many years of their life and dreams while they sacrifice nothing. The Olympics is an international sporting event, not an avenue for people to push their agenda and for people to promote their political careers.

Apart from which an Australia boycott is unlikely to change anything apart from our political reputation with China, which is currently one of the major 'hands that feeds' our economy. Lastly the violent and disruptive anti-Chinese protesters have forgotten what and who they are protesting for; Tibetans are generally pacifist.

Hopefully Australians show a bit more intellect and class when it is our turn to host the relay. For us athletes it is great through all this to have John Coates as AOC President, systematically rebuked all of these calls.

On that note the Olympic Torch Relay is coming to Canberra on the 24^th of April and rowing managed to get a piece of the action. I've been told the super-ladies of the Women's 8 will be rowing the Lenovo designed torch across the lake. And might I add that I have never seen such a slender, beautiful and firey, torch in my life. Most probably it was designed on a group of Lenovo Ideapad designers, on a group of the same stylish yet functional laptop I am writing this blog on.

Training is going well, we have had a few injuries here and there which have prevented us from training as a crew. The plan is to not be injured anymore but in the unlikely event that plan fails reserves are being selected this week at the trials.

I'm tired of athletes who always have pissing matches about the amount and intensity of training they do, so I'll be brief and say it takes up most of our time and it is hard. I prefer results; I did a PB on the ergo on a 19 minute pyramid (It's the current national standard training ergo; 4 min @ 16spm, 3 min @18spm, 2min @20spm, 1min @22spm, then back down) averaging 1:38.9 at the end of a 2 week cycle, so things are improving . The mornings in Canberra are getting colder and going out near naked in Lycra suits is becoming slightly less appealing.

At the end of the month we are leaving for our Pre-Olympic World Cup tour through Europe. The tour takes us through Munich for World Cup 1, Verese (near Milan) for a training camp and Lucerne (Switzerland) for World Cup 2 (There is a 3^rd we aren't going to). If we didn't have to race, train all day and take care of ourselves, it would be quite the Contiki tour.

Still from the water, there is no better place to be.

There are few opportunities in a season for a rower to build up to a peak, so we will be training through these regattas with the aim of peaking for Beijing. Two years ago on a similar tour we ended up leading the World Cup in the M8+ after a 3^rd and 1^st so I'll be disappointed with anything less.

Just writing about it has fired me up. I can't wait to get out there and really feel some mmols/l of lactic acid and that post-race high!

Jeremy S.