Community Corner

2012 Olympics: Osborne Rows His Way to London

By combining his physical gifts and talents with hard work, Sherman Oaks native is ready to represent the United States in rowing, a sport he was introduced to at Stanford University.

Alex Osborne of Sherman Oaks is quick to credit his parents for his being in London today, preparing to compete in the Games of the XXX Olympiad.

If it weren't for the 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame and supreme athletic skills he inherited from them, he might just be your run-of-the-mill Stanford University graduate.

“I have to thank my mom and dad because you do need the physiological component, of having size and being able to have a strong engine,” he said with a laugh.

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Osborne, 25, is the son of Alfred Osborne Jr. and Nancy Rahnasto Osborne of Sherman Oaks. He'll be competing in his first Olympics as a member of the heavyweight quadruple sculls rowing team.

But his trip to the Olympics isn't a story of a lifelong dream becoming reality. The dream didn't start to take shape until he reached college.

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“At Stanford, they’d get a fair amount of rowing recruits, but to build a really big program they just needed a lot of bodies,” said Osborne, who was a freshman in 2005. “So the coaches would just walk around campus, trying to find pretty much anyone over 6 feet tall. I ran into one of the coaches and he told me to come down and check it out, and I just kind of ran with it."

Osborne played on championship basketball and golf teams at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City. But athletics always ran second to his studies, and it was his academic performance that got him accepted to Stanford.

“We won a lot in high school, but for me individually ... I don’t want to say I was lazy, but sports just weren’t my priority,” Osborne said. “I’ve always been into sports, but when I got to college, I started actually working hard.”

While at Harvard-Westlake, Osborne was a part of four CIF champion basketball teams, and CIF champion teams in golf during his junior and senior years. But the work he put into those sports didn't come close to the rigors of his college rowing career.

“I don’t think I knew what hard work was until I started rowing for Craig,” Osborne said.

"Craig" is Craig Amerkhanian, who has been the head rowing coach at Stanford for 13 years, and who has helped four current and former Stanford rowers make this year's U.S. Olympic team, the most from any school in the nation.

Amerkhanian said Osborne is a perfect fit for the demands of rowing, which requires fitness, strength and athleticism.

“It’s not uncommon for athletes that have never rowed before college, because they are good athletes, to excel to the highest level,” Amerkhanian said. “Alex is the complete athlete. Of the 20 Olympians I’ve coached, Alex is in the top tier as far as athleticism, and that includes many gold medalists.”

Amerkhanian first became aware of Osborne’s athleticism when Osborne, at the end of his second collegiate year, took a "VO2" fitness test alongside rowing Olympian Adam Kreek, who also attended Stanford. (The test measures the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can utilize during intense exercise.)

“They had identical scores and Adam was a two-time world champion and a two-time Olympian,” Amerkhanian said. “Alex had the same science after only rowing for two years, where Adam had been rowing for 10 years.

“When I saw that, I thought that this young man has all the components. He already has strength, size, an iron will, and then you throw in the intangibles.”

Amerkhanian's assessment proved correct. Osborne has competed in several world-class events, and in 2008 he won a gold medal as part of the United States 8+ team at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

As impressive as it is for Osborne to have achieved world-class status in a sport he didn't learn until college, consider the fact that the event he'll be competing in at the Olympics, the quadruple scull, he didnt pick up until this past January.

Osborne began his rowing career in sweep boats, in which each member of the team pulls a single oar. After suffering two rib injuries early this year, he switched to sculling boats, in which each competitor has two oars.

“They’re pretty different,” Osborne said. “I didn’t really have any sculling experience, especially internationally. Basically, I was trying to learn a new sport.”

“I just thought, if I have it in me to get in the mix with the guys, I’d have a chance. And, fortunately, it went my way.”

All the way to the Olympics.

“I certainly didn’t consider [the Olympics] until I got to Stanford,” he said. “But the thing that’s really strange is, as a college freshman … just seeing [Adam Kreek] every day, for some reason, I just thought that a couple of us could make it.

“I don’t know why, because I was a freshman and I was terrible. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I still don’t really know what I’m doing. But for some reason, it was just so straightforward. If you do your work, you can do it.”

And, obviously, he listened to his coach.

“Rowing is work-driven,” Amerkhanian said. “It’s a sport in which you get what you put into it. There’s not going to be a situation you work really hard and a referee or umpire blows a call. The fittest, strongest, the most technically sound, are 95 percent of the time going to win the race.”

Five to six hours of training a day are required for such a demanding sport, one that requires athletes to maintain a high level of intensity for sustained periods.

“When you watch it on TV, it’s hard to appreciate the technical component,” Osborne said. “The rowing stroke is extremely difficult and it requires extreme precision.”

“It’s very different from ball sports in that it’s not a game, it’s a race. It’s unique in that it’s over 2,000 meters. So, for us in the quad, it takes about 5 minutes and 40 seconds. And that amount of time is very long to go at the intensity in which we go.”

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the U.S. team finished fifth in the quadruple scull. Yet, no country has repeated as champion over the past three World Championships, and the gold medal is within reach for any team, Osborne said.

More important for Osborne is the experience of his first Olympics, which Amerkhanian is confident “won’t be Alex’s last.”

“The experience has meant a great deal,” Osborne said. “I'm the first person in my family to become an Olympian and that has made us all extremely proud. Down the road I'm sure that this is something I will never forget—it defines who I have become. I am certain that I will reflect upon the experience as a time in my life when I truly was among the world's elite.

“Ultimately, however, the best memory will come from a strong performance. So that is an important part of how this experience will be defined.”

Sherman Oaks Patch will continue to follow Osborne's progress at the Olympics. Be sure to check back for updates. 


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