Community Corner

London Olympics Experience Motivates Osborne for Rio in 2016

Sherman Oaks' Alex Osborne hopes that a disappointing finish in the London Olympics can be reversed during a trip to Rio in 2016.

One Olympics down, a few more to go.

That appears to be the plan for Sherman Oaks native and Stanford University alum Alex Osborne, who recently competed in the London Olympics in the quadruple sculls rowing event.

“I’ve given that some thought over the past week and a half and I do want to try this again,” Osborne said when asked if he will strive for the Rio Olympics in 2012. “I won’t be rowing for a while, a couple of months, maybe a year before I start doing serious training again, but this is a special opportunity and I would like the chance to represent my country again.”

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Osborne and his teammates fell short of the Olympic final in the 4-man quadruple sculls race, losing in the quarterfinal heat when after a minute into the race, one American oarsmen found his oar stuck in the water, causing the American boat to come to a complete halt.

Still, the American team nearly made it to the next heat.

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“That was a bummer [when the paddle stalled], but right after that, we got back on it and came within half a second of the top three, where we needed to be,” Osborne said. “But we came up just short.”

Despite the American’s stroke of bad luck, their efforts to climb back into the race gave Osborne a reason to be optimistic.

“Obviously we’re there to race and that’s our focus, so having a disappointing result definitely doesn’t feel good,” Osborne said. “But outside of that, the racing itself was fantastic. We had the “shipwreck” if you will, but I think the way we handled the rest of the race…was something I’m very proud of.”

Osborne is a graduate of Harvard Westlake High School in Studio City who began his rowing career as a freshman at Stanford in 2005. And his first trip to the world’s premier sports tournament definitely made an impact.

“You’re getting to see the best in the world at their peak, not just at another race,” Osborne said. “To be able to see Usain Bolt, to see that this is what he trains for. This is where he’s the best that he can be. That’s a very special thing.”

According to Osborne, adding to the challenge of facing the world’s best athletes at their peak is the element of mystery that accompanies facing Olympians from other countries.

“In college, we race the same guys in every race,” Osborne said. “I know the guys in the Cal boat and I know them well. There are some familiarities. But in the Olympics, I don’t know any of these guys. I know about them and what they’ve done in the past, but not personally. So that definitely adds some mystery and it’s another variable that makes it that much more challenging.”

However, Osborne says that the biggest difference between racing in college or in the World Championships and racing in the Olympics is the shear attention that the sport receives.

“The venue itself was fantastic,” Osborne said. “There were more fans at the grandstand than I’ve ever seen in my life. They were saying there was 30,000 or 40,000 people there everyday. In rowing, you don’t really see that. And the biggest thing I noticed right away, even compared to the World Championships, it’s just loud. Ordinarily, in a rowing race, you don’t hear anything, except the guys in the boats next to you and the oars hitting the water.”

“In this race, the last 500 meters, I couldn’t hear anything, except the cheering,” Osborne added. “That was a unique experience.”


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