Crew
Coach Takes First in Boston
Karen Klinger, fourth from
the stern, rows the Charles River with the 1980 Boat
Club |
Karen Klinger, head crew coach, raced to a comfortable win
October 20 and 21 at the 43rd Head of the Charles regatta,
the annual crew team race in Boston.
Klinger, who is 42, raced in the senior masters 8 event
(for ages 40 to 50) with the 1980 Boat Club, made up of members
of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Games crew team.
“We have a great bunch of women from all over the
country in the boat,” said Klinger. “We get together
for one practice the day before the race, and then go and
race hard.”
Klinger’s team won
the event by a margin of 15 seconds with a time of 18 minutes.
 “I try to keep up with our [Smith] athletes,” said
Klinger. “It’s great to get into a boat, because
so much of my coaching is descriptive—how things sound,
how they feel, the movement of the boat—that it’s
helpful to race every now and then.”
The Head of the Charles
has become the world’s largest
two-day rowing event and pits more than 7,500 athletes from
around the world in 55 different races. An estimated 300,000
spectators attended this year’s regatta. |
