The United States will have six crews racing for spots at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games starting Saturday as the 2021 World Rowing Final Olympic Qualification Regatta gets underway on the Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland.
 
While the U.S. already qualified eight boats for Tokyo at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, the U.S. men's single sculls, men's double sculls, lightweight men's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls, men's pair and men's quadruple sculls will be trying to earn one of the final qualification spots for the Olympics during the three-day regatta.
 
The men's pair of Tom Peszek (Farmington Hills, Mich./University of Michigan) and Mike DiSanto (Boston, Mass./Harvard University) will get things started for the U.S. on Saturday morning. The duo raced uncontested at the second 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing to solidify their chance to compete at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Both Peszek, a 10-time national team member, and DiSanto, a six-time national team member, are trying to make their second Olympic Games. Peszek raced the pair at the London 2012 Olympics, finishing eighth, while DiSanto finished fourth in the eight at the Rio 2016 Olympics. The U.S. is one of 13 entries in Lucerne.
 
Racing in the first of three heats, Peszek and DiSanto will take on crews from Denmark, Chile, Russia and Indonesia, with the top three crews advancing to Sunday's semifinals and the rest heading to the repechages. Denmark's Frederic Vystavel and Joachim Sutton finished sixth at the 2020 European Rowing Championships and eighth in 2021.
 
The men's double sculls event has 18 entries. The duo of Kevin Cardno (Huntsville, Ala./ University of Alabama, Huntsville) and Jonathan Kirkegaard (DeForest, Wis./Purdue University) held on to win their final at the first Olympic Trials in Sarasota by just under one second to earn the chance to race in Lucerne. Cardno and Kirkegaard will need to finish in the top two in Lucerne to qualify for Tokyo.
 
"We're keeping it internal and focusing on what we can control going into the weekend," Cardno said. "We're hopeful we can perform to the best of our abilities." 
 
On Saturday, Cardno and Kirkegaard will race crews from Uzbekistan, Greece, Italy, Estonia and the Czech Republic in the first of three heats. The top two finishers in each heat will advance to the semifinals, with the remaining boats going to the repechages. The Czech boat of Jakub Podrazil and Jan Cincibuch finished fifth at World Rowing Cup I two weeks ago.
 
Six-time senior national team member John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College) earned his chance to race in Lucerne with an open-water victory at the first Olympic Trials at the end of February in Sarasota. Graves is one of 23 scullers vying for the final two Olympic qualification spots in the men's single sculls.
 
"As far as the field goes, I knew it would be deep, but the entry list just goes to show how competitive the sport is right now," Graves said. "It will be tight, intense racing, and I will be looking to let my rhythm and determination carry me throughout – should be a fun weekend."
 
Graves will race in the fourth and final heat on Saturday against scullers from Israel, Cuba, Poland and Austria. The winner moves on to the semifinals, with the rest of the boats heading to the repechages. Poland's Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk finished seventh in the event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and has been on the medal stand at both the 2020 and 2021 European Rowing Championships.
 
In the lightweight women's double sculls, Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) and Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) laid down a dominant performance at the trials in Sarasota, winning the final by more than eight seconds. They followed that up with a second-place performance in the open weight women's double at the second Olympic Trials in New Jersey, gaining great race experience. In Lucerne, the duo is part of a 14-boat field, with the top three finishers earning spots in Tokyo.
 
Sechser and Reckford will race against Germany, China, Poland and the Czech Republic in the second of three heats. The top three crews will advance directly to the semifinals, with the remaining boats heading to the repechages.
 
Zachary Heese (Pelham, N.Y./University of Virginia) and Jasper Liu (Phoenix, Ariz./University of Pennsylvania) won the U.S. trials in the lightweight men's double sculls by more than five seconds to earn the right to compete at the qualifier. Heese and Liu, who were boatmates in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls in 2019, are part of a 17-boat field in Lucerne. A top-two finish would earn them a spot in Tokyo.
 
"We don't really have an idea of our speed relative to the other countries entered, but we know it'll be extremely tough, tight racing," Liu said. "Saturday will be the first time everyone has to lay some cards down on the table. If we hope to qualify, then we need to have the speed to beat every boat (save one) out there, so Saturday will be the first test."
 
Racing in the first of three heats, Heese and Liu will take on crews from the Czech Republic, Brazil, Austria, China and Japan. The top two finishers move on to the semifinals, with the rest going to the repechages. Austria's Paul Sieber and Julian Schoeberl finished third at World Rowing Cup I two weeks ago, while the Czech crew of Jiri Simanek and Miroslav Vrastil finished fourth at this year's European Championships.
 
Fresh off a fourth-place finish at World Rowing Cup I, the men's quadruple sculls crew of Charles Anderson (Upper Darby, Pa./Temple University), Justin Keen (Hatfield, Pa./Penn State University), Eliot Putnam (Littleton, Mass./Cornell University) and Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University) are one of eight boats racing at the qualifier. Racing in its first international regatta together, the crew missed the medal stand by a bow-ball in Croatia and hopes to use that racing experience as a springboard to claim one of the final two spots for Tokyo.
 
The crew will open its qualifier in the second of two heats against boats from the Czech Republic, Estonia and Ukraine. Estonia won the world cup race in Croatia. The winner of each heat advances directly to Monday's final, with the remaining crews heading to the repechages.
 
Racing at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta gets underway on Saturday with heats and repechages for events with more than 13 entries. Sunday will feature the remaining repechages and semifinals. Finals will be held on Monday. Racing gets underway at 10 a.m. local time each day. In total, more than 400 athletes from 49 nations are scheduled to compete in the regatta.
 
Live video streaming of the finals will be available on Monday on www.worldrowing.com. The broadcast also will be available on The Olympic Channel (outside of Europe).
 
Click here for the U.S. Final Olympic Qualification Regatta roster and bios. For complete coverage of the regatta, click here.
 
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be held July 23-August 9, with rowing events slated to start on the morning of July 23. Click here for the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Qualification Process Quick Guide.
 
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