Laurentian rowing coach reflects on early days of Olympian Carling Zeeman's career

Laurentian graduate Carling Zeeman will be rowing this week for a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and her former university coach will be following her progress.

Amanda Schweinbenz said she hasn't missed any of Zeeman's international races. She's from Cambridge, Ont., and started rowing with the Laurentian team in 2009.

Schweinbenz is now training future Olympian rowers at the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre in Welland. She first met Zeeman when the future Olympian — a raw, athletic undergrad — decided to try out for Laurentian's varsity rowing club. 

"Carling walked into a novice meeting that I had and she brought with her a wonderful gang of friends from the Outdoor Adventure and Leadership program," said Schweinbenz. 

"The first thing I did was I looked at her and I thought, 'Wow, that person could be an incredible rower.' She's very tall. She's athletic. She has the physique of an athlete."

Schweinbenz said their first training sessions weren't perfect, but Zeeman was a quick learner.

"Everyone who starts rowing for the first time struggles," Schweinbenz said. "No one is excellent when they start, which is what makes coaching fun.

"But Carling started showing really incredible performance on the rowing machine almost straight away and then on the water, within a year."

That led to competitions at the national level, and eventually onto the Olympics in Rio, where she placed 10th.

"It's really difficult to go into your first Olympic Games and be a medallist, especially in an event like the single sculls, because you are alone in the boat," Schweinbenz said. "It's different if you're in a bigger boat and a larger group of athletes like in the eight or the quad because you have a bit of a support network around you.

"When you're in the single, it's all about you, and success or non-success is about you. And she did an incredible job."

Schweinbenz said Zeeman had the perfect mental makeup to not only succeed at an elite level, but also continue to learn. 

That's a particular mindset that can also help the next generation of rowers, the coach said.

"When Carling talks to younger athletes, she always says to them, 'If you're not on the verge of flipping, then you're not going fast enough.'"

"She also says things like, 'It's always going to hurt. So you might as well just go faster and get it over with, faster.'"

As for the upcoming Olympic races, Schweinbenz said she still loves watching Zeeman race.

"She's a strong woman and she's really entertaining to watch. And it feels really awesome to know that at some point, you were part of someone's history in the sport, and however large or small that is, and again, because she's such a wonderful person, you just want her to succeed."