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 (Photo courtesy of USRowing) caption:
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Holbrook's Second Act in Rowing Turns into Olympic Family Affair
Bill Alden
By the time Danika Harris graduated from Princeton University in 1995, she had accomplished just about everything she could in the sport of rowing.
As a collegiate performer, she had helped lead the Tigers' top open crew to NCAA titles in 1994 and 1995.
On the national scene, she had a won a gold medal in the lightweight eight and lightweight four at the 1995 USRowing National Championships.
Internationally, Harris had won a gold medal in the lightweight four at the 1994 FISA World Championships.
Deciding that she needed a break from the sport she had taken up as a 10-year-old growing up in New Hampshire, Harris retired from competitive rowing and moved to California to pursue a career in the pharmaceutical industry.
But in 2000, while watching the Sydney Olympics with her boyfriend and husband-to-be, Ben Holbrook, himself a national-class rower, Harris caught the rowing bug again.
Resolving to resume rowing in order to compete in the 2004 Olympics, Harris called the U.S. women's national coach Tom Terhaar, who told her that she had to move back east to train with the Princeton Training Center if she was to have any chance of realizing that ambition.
Harris returned to her old stomping ground in 2001 with Holbrook and their shared Olympic dream but with no job or place to stay. The couple stayed in a spare room in a friend's house but quickly found an apartment and work.
Once settled, Harris focused on making the quadruple scull, the discipline of the sport in which the rowers use two oars. After some setbacks, Harris gradually worked her way into the national team.
She and Holbrook married last September and then this July, their gamble paid off as they were both named to the U.S. Olympic team.
As Mrs. Holbrook prepared to head to Athens, she maintained that her move back east really involved little risk.
"I was in it for the fun of it," said Holbrook. "I didn't know whether I could make it, I just wanted to take it one step at a time. I had no idea what my potential would be as a heavyweight sculler."
In fact, Holbrook didn't make the final cut for the quadruple scull in 2002. She responded by winning the single sculls at the 2002 USRowing National Team Trials and was later invited to join the top quadruple scull.
"I was just pleased making that far," acknowledged Holbrook, who went on to help her boat finish sixth in the FISA World Championships in 2003 and earn the bronze at the 2004 BearingPoint World Cup stop at Lucerne. "I no longer felt like an underdog. It certainly gave me confidence."
Holbrook developed plenty of confidence in her rowing during her college career at Princeton. "I loved the coaches, I loved my teammates," declared Holbrook as she reflected on her years with the Tiger program.
"The races were a blast. I'm still fantastic friends with many of the girls I rowed with at Princeton. There was just an amazing camaraderie in college, unlike anything I had seen before or since."
Of course, these days, Holbrook has a special camaraderie at home as she and her husband share the honor of making it to the same Olympics.
"It's an incredible support system having your husband going through the same thing that you are going through," said Holbrook of her husband, who rowed at Brown and will be rowing in the men's quadruple sculls in Athens. "It's support that you can't replicate. It's such a treat for both of us to get this opportunity together."
Holbrook has needed that support as she has put in grueling training over the latter part of July. "The last three weeks have been really tough, we've been doing the last push to get our base established," explained Holbrook, who said the team had been undergoing three-a-day training sessions at its base at the Mercer County Park boathouse.
"After we get to Athens to get processed, we'll head to Bulgaria for training camp. We'll do a whole bunch of pieces at race pace."
In Holbrook's view, that work will pay dividends. "I think we have a definite chance to medal," asserted Holbrook. "If we have the race of our lives, we could pull out a pretty incredible performance. I'm very excited."
For Holbrook, the resumption of her rowing career has already been an incredible journey no matter how things turn out in Athens.
"I've had so much fun over the last three years," declared Holbrook, who said she and her husband plan to move to Wisconsin after the Olympics where she will go to grad school for sports nutrition.
"If I had stopped having fun, I would have given this up. There have been some hard days but I've been able to work through that."
And in so doing, Holbrook has shown that a second act of a sports career can carry special rewards.
