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93 WIBC it is kind of like Casey and we have Jen joining us in the studio former Olympian in rowing so Jen I'm fascinated by this tell me a little bit about your history in the sport of rowing and and first of all what is rowing for people who don't know well a lot of people think oh canoeing you're out on the water and it's all arms you are on the water you are in a boat

but I will tell you it's 60% legs 30% body to only 10% arms so it's mostly a leg sport you're just you got either one or two ores and you're just gliding that boat over the water through the water and and yeah just rowing how many people are in the boat with you it depends so you can have one person two person four person eight person boats and which did you compete in so in the Olympics I was in a quad which is a four person boat mm-hmm

and which Olympics were you involved in 2008 okay Beijing tell us about that experience that I was over in China for one month and that was honestly long enough we were there we got there two weeks before competing and just to acclimate because it was hot hot humid when we landed it was very that a lot of smog it was it was something else but we were there for two weeks

did a lot of training just getting ready you know just getting ready for racing we raced the first week of the Olympics and then we were done the second week so that second week it was just going around seeing other events going to other venues sightseeing you know there there is some parties going on in the evening so attending those and yeah just having a good time

and how did you guys do in the Olympics the boat I was in came in fifth place oh fifth yeah so you did really well yeah I mean when you when you think globally oh yes that's pretty darn good yeah and really for the Olympics a lot of people don't know this but you have to qualify the year before mm-hmm

because there's only eight countries that can enter at least for the event that I was in eight countries that can enter at the Olympics you had to qualify your country that year before okay not everybody makes

it in and you're still involved in the sport today yeah I tried to I tried to coach when I can I continue to row when I can just definitely not at that elite training level yeah yeah it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort when you're competing at that level

yeah who's your and former Olympian Jen is joining us and Jen you recently received an email from a teammate tell us what the message was

basically it was it was from a former teammate of mine asking for my support in U.S. rowing put out a gender equity policy asking for my support in supporting trans athletes in rowing specifically juniors and masters not at the collegiate level or the Olympic level

but juniors which is middle school high school and then masters adult so this former teammate wanted your support within the rowing organization of having juniors and masters transgenders in the sport mm-hmm

and you're talking about middle school and high schoolers yes okay and how did you feel about that it irritated me

just because I know how how hard I had to work and train to compete at the level that I was that I was at and even even now if I go out and race I would be racing as a master's if I race against a biological man I just it's science and it's biology they're just naturally stronger

mm-hmm I am more efficient on the water than than most people because I know how to set the boat and how to row so I may be able to win that way possibly but just strength wise

they're just going to be stronger than me and it's going to be hard to compete even it I mean I'm pretty fit for you know for my age and for a woman and it's going to be hard to compete against that and it just

it just kind of irritated me I just you know I would like to see the the gender separate a man's you know moments about man's event and maybe a trans event

because so with women's rowing women only began competing at the Olympic level in 1976 that's that's pretty recent yeah

very recent and they had to fight for that because of title nine they had to fight for that they were you know and and then to just allow

you know a biological man yeah and for the sport yeah it just kind of takes away from what the those women fought for I understand exactly what you're talking about I have a daughter who played soccer from five years old all the way through graduation of high school

but she also wanted to play lacrosse and there was not a girls lacrosse team available and she wasn't she wasn't allowed to play on the boys team

so as the good loving mother that I am I went out and created the girls club which involves forming a 501 C3 working with the national across association

getting bank accounts getting insurance hiring coaches getting practice field striping the field finding other schools to compete with all of this stuff

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