Stunned St. Paul guys shine on global stage

You need to upgrade your Flash Player to properly use this content.

Start Update | Cancel

If you think you may have reached this message in error, you can bypass the detection.

Matt Schnobrich and Micah Boyd helped to power a U.S. comeback in the final 500 meters for a bronze.

By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

Last update: August 18, 2008 - 12:19 AM

Print this story

ROWING MEN'S EIGHT COMPETITION

Medalists • Gold: Canada, 5:23.89 • Silver: Great Britian, 5:25.11 • Bronze: United States, 5:25.34

More from Olympics

BEIJING - Matt Schnobrich never would have expected this a decade ago. As a student at St. John's University in Collegeville, he had just taken up rowing with the school's club, which operated on a tiny budget with no coach.

Little wonder then that he looked a bit stunned Sunday as he and fellow St. Paul native Micah Boyd bowed their heads to receive Olympic bronze medals. Schnobrich, 29, and Boyd, 26, helped the U.S. finish third in the men's eight competition at Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park, the second consecutive Olympic medal for the Americans in rowing's glamour event.

Canada, the defending world champion, was heavily favored and won the 2,000-meter race in 5 minutes, 23.89 seconds. The U.S. boat rallied from sixth and last at the 500-meter mark to finish in 5:25.34, just .23 of a second behind silver medalist Britain.

"Ten years ago, I was so far removed from this,'' said Schnobrich, who attended St. Thomas Academy and participated in soccer, hockey and cross-country skiing. "But I just kept going in the sport.

"The most important thing this says to kids is that rowing is one of those sports that takes all the castoffs from other sports. However meager your athletic origins, you can always find a way to get to the top as long as you know what you're doing and you love what you're doing.''

At the 2004 Olympics, the U.S. men's eight won a gold medal for the first time in 40 years. With five newcomers -- and with Canada looking unstoppable -- they knew it would be difficult to repeat.

The U.S. boat started slowly in the heats as well as in the final. The eight finished second in its qualifying heat, which meant it had to row in the repechage to try to win a place in the final. The Americans won that race with a far better performance, but Sunday they fell behind early and had to rally.

They steadily moved up after the first 500 meters. By the halfway point, they had worked their way to fourth; at the 1,500-meter mark, they were battling the Brits for the silver. Britain powered through the final strokes to edge them.

Boyd, too, did not expect to be in Beijing this week. A graduate of St. Paul Central, he discovered rowing at St. Paul's Minnesota Boat Club. He later rowed at the University of Wisconsin and, like Schnobrich, moved east when he realized he could join the sport's elite. Both of them trained with the Penn Athletic Club in Philadelphia before preparing for the Olympics at the home base of the U.S. national team in Princeton, N.J.

He and Boyd were among four Midwesterners in the men's eight boat, which traditionally is filled with Easterners.

"When I first started rowing in high school, I never thought I'd be in the Olympics,'' said Boyd, who was satisfied to come away with a bronze. "It's a medal. It goes up on the grand tally. It hurts that it's not gold or silver, but we're coming home with hardware.''