Former Badger Rowers Named to U.S. Olympic Team
July 08, 2004 | Men's Rowing
USRowing announced its selections for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team, Wednesday, and former Badger rowing captains Beau Hoopman and Matt Smith have been chosen to row at the 2004 Olympic Summer Games, held Aug. 14-22 in Athens, Greece. Former Badger rower Matt Imes will serve as an assistant coach for the team.
Hoopman, a native of Plymouth, Wis., will compete with the men 's eight, while Smith, from Woodbridge, Va., will race with the men's lightweight four.
Hoopman captained the Badgers during the 2001'02 season, helping the Badger varsity eight to its first Eastern Sprints title since 1946 and a runner-up result in the national championship race. A member of Wisconsin's first Eastern Sprints championship in the freshmen eight in 2000, he has since gone on to international success. He won gold at the 2002 Under-23 World Championships in Genoa, Italy in the men's eight and most recently a gold in the men's four at the 2004 BearingPoint Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. His appearance in the men's eight gives Wisconsin its first representative in the nation's top boat since the Tim Mickelson rowed in the boat at the 1972 Olympics.
The 2003 UW graduate won the Norm R. Sonju Award his senior season with the Wisconsin program as the oarsman who made an outstanding contribution to the success of the UW crew program in the categories of leadership, dedication and sportsmanlike attitude.
'I'm happy,' Hoopman said. 'I 'm trying to keep it on the down low because we still have to race. This is just the first step. We have a good chance to do really well. We have a bunch of good guys in the boat so we will see what happens.'
Smith led the Badgers as captain for the 1999'00 campaign, stroking the varsity eight to an eighth-place result at the national championships in that senior season. Like Hoopman, Smith is a veteran of international competition as a four-time U.S. national team member.
'It was a long year and a lot of tense times, but I think it is a great honor and a testament to Coach Chris Clark and the University of Wisconsin,' Smith beamed. 'He definitely got me on track with rowing on the national team back when I was a freshman and sophomore on the rowing team. I don't think I would have been here if he hadn't inspired me and convinced me to row in the summers. It is a definitely a testament to him and it is a great honor to represent the school and everything it stands for. On a personal side, it hasn't really sunk in at all. Every day we are still just going down and rowing and I think I'll actually believe it and be more excited when I'm over there.'
Smith, a captain in the Army and part of the Army World-Class Athlete Program, is a fall of 2001 graduate of the Army Ranger School.
'The Army is another major part of me being here,' Smith added. 'I am in the Army World-Class Athlete program. The goal of the program is for Army soldiers and officers who have shown the potential to make the Olympic team in whatever discipline. They allow the opportunity to try out for your sport. You apply to the program and as long as you continue to show progress towards making the Olympic team, you stay in the program. Without this program, I wouldn't be here because I figured I would stop rowing once I got out of college. I did Army ROTC at Wisconsin and was already going into the Army, but once I found out about this program, it was a bonus. I was able to do two things I really enjoy in my life - one being rowing and going for the Olympic games and two, serving in the Army and serving my country.
The selections to the Olympic team concludes a grueling stretch for Hoopman and Smith.
'It was a long selection process,' Smith commented. 'We didn't really have a set trials like swimming or track and field have trials where there is a definite moment you know you made it or didn't make it. For us it has been a couple of years, and in the last eight months we were always in selections. Every day it was a test to try and prove yourselves. There is still a lot of hard work ahead of us and now we get down to the meat and potatoes of trying to do well over there.'
Hoopman and Smith give the Badger rowing program at least one rower in each of the last 10 Olympic summer games dating back to 1968. They also bring the total UW men's rowers in the Olympics to 10. Stewart MacDonald (1968, `72), Tim Mickelson (1972), Neil Halleen (1976), Bob Espeseth (1976, `80, `84, `88), Dave Krmpotich (1988), Mark Berkner (1992), Eric Mueller (1996, `00) and Kurt Borcherding (2000) all previously made the U.S. Olympic team.
'Of the two guys I've coached in the past 10 years, if I had to pick anybody that would be the right combination of physiology, mental discipline, training integrity and competitive spirit it would be Beau and Matt,' said Clark. 'They are first among equals and pound-for-pound the two best I 've coached. They are the most driven to be Olympians, which is a pretty important factor. Obviously we are excited.'
Also representing the Badger rowers for the U.S. Olympic rowing team is Matt Imes, who rowed for the UW from 1989'91. He will serve as one of the four assistant coaches for the American contingent.
