In the Richmond Olympic Oval there is a photo of Ben Rutledge: He and his crew are all smiles as they toss their coxswain—the individual who guides the racing shell—into a lake. The photo captures the celebratory moment of winning the men’s heavyweight gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The photo presides over the Oval’s weight room, and so does Rutledge. As he monitors six of UBC’s varsity athletes working through a demanding erg piece—ergs are machines designed to simulate on-water rowing—Rutledge delivers a series of questions and demands designed, he later explains, to get the most from his crew.

“Show your teammates how much you want to be in the boat.”

“Ask more.”

“You did it once today, you can do it twice tomorrow.”

“I know you are tired, but keep your face relaxed. Don’t let the competition know you are tired.”

Rutledge, who is the rowing team’s new assistant coach, possesses an imposing physical presence. He stands about 6’5” and weighs about 215lbs. He also possesses an imposing moral and professional authority recognized not only by the UBC crew, but by the university’s athletic administration. In fact, UBC so keenly appreciates Rutledge’s expertise and leadership that they have made efforts to find outside financing to provide him with a contract.

“I never saw myself as particularly driven,” Rutledge says, though he rowed in a pair at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and won gold in Beijing.

“Ben’s one of Canada’s most successful athletes ever,” according to Head Rowing Coach Mike Pearce.

Rutledge grew up in Cranbrook, BC before attending and graduating from UBC’s Sauder School of Business in 2006, where he specialized in real estate.

While training in Beijing, Rutledge’s crew had an aggressive mindset that he is seeking to instil at UBC. “You have to make sure you don’t let [the cometition] pass you in practice. We always thought that if we let them have an inch, they can have a boat length. We just never let anyone have an inch,” Rutledge argues.

Not all UBC varsity athletes have Rutledge’s desired mindset, however. Brock Zawila is working through an erg piece Rutledge assigned, and his split (how fast he can row 500 metres) is 1:40, which is well short of Ben’s designated target of 1:30.

Rutledge has not given up on Zawila, though. Frequently, Rutledge would walk over and encourage Zawila. Zawila’s split fell to 1:30 whenever Rutledge was there.

Zawila is from a small rowing club out in Delta, and he is enjoying the intensity of this camp. He has never been pushed before.

“All the guys are used to me,” Pearce says. “Now, they got to get used to Ben. If Ben wants to be the disciplinarian, that’s great.”

And Rutledge certainly has taken on the role of team disciplinarian.

On the morning of September 6, Garret Bouhuyzen and Andrew Knorr sauntered in at 7:05am. Practice started at 7am. As they entered, Rutledge asked them if they owned a watch. After the morning stretches, Rutledge took them aside and told them he did not want this to be a routine. He did not yell, but he was clear: be punctual.

However, while he’s the disciplinarian, “[he] wants to see who can push themselves as hard as they can without [him] cracking the whip.”

“I want my role to be someone always asking for more,” Rutledge says, “making sure there are never any setbacks or softness. It’s easy to get soft. You need a standard to be held to.”

Pearce says Rutledge has had to lower his Olympic standards, but Rutledge still has valuable advice. Last year, Rutledge told the varsity and novice rowers that they could not twitter their way into the varsity eight—it takes hard work.

That hard-work mentality is what needs to permeate into the varsity program if UBC wants to take down Canada’s most recent undisputed rowing king, the University of Western Ontario.

In part, the lack of intensity stems from the men having only one coxswain. One per boat is needed, so pitting two eights against each other is impossible. Pearce calls the situation “shitty.”

Mid-way through the first week, however, a second coxswain, Carina Lui, committed to the team. But Lui still has much to learn, Rutledge comments.
Once, when Lui’s boat was behind the other eight, she commandeered the boat in the other’s wake.

Rutledge was not mad, but he did take note, saying there was plenty of flat water on either side of Ronan Sabo-Walsh’s wake. “She’ll learn,” Rutledge said, after a pause.
“I want someone who is smart enough to learn how to [row], but dumb enough to do it,” Rutledge jokes.

Finding such individuals is daunting, but a task Pearce and Rutledge must accomplish if Rutledge is to meet Rowing Canada’s designated target.

They need tough-minded students. Pearce repeatedly states and emphasizes the need for goal-setting both in the classroom and in the shell. There’s a lot to juggle: a 40-hour athletic commitment, three to five courses per term, and the demands of maintaining a social life.

Last year, the team’s depth—the number of varsity athletes—was a problem. But things are looking better this year: India’s 2008 skulling (a one-person rowing shell) champion, Rahul Baliga, and two light-weights, Rares Crisan and Josh Metcalfe, who rowed with Canada’s national team last summer, are UBC varsity athletes.

Yet for all the bright spots, the season’s grind has already cost the team two star rowers: Mitch Wilson and Tim Love. They left due to academic obligations and injuries, respectively.

But the worst is yet to come. Soon, the rain will fall more frequently, the Pacific’s wind will become icier, and the mornings will grow darker—eventually, entire practices will be completed in total darkness. All the while, they will row on a river with a demanding current.

To ease the academic, social and weather pitfalls, Pearce and Rutledge have a few unparalleled goodies to ease the burdens.

Pearce raised five million dollars to construct a new boathouse on the Fraser River. “It’s unprecedented in Canada,” says Pearce. Canadian athletics are largely neglected, especially fringe sports like rowing. The boathouse’s location provides UBC with a four- and three-kilometre stretch of straight water. And barring frequent seaplane arrivals and departures, they are left alone on the water.

But the real jewel is the Richmond Olympic Oval. Though expensive to use, the facility provides coaches with a rowing tank and numerous ergs. The rowing tank is particularly useful for coaches training novices.

“We are able to grab athletes and physically manipulate them,” Pearce says.

On the first day back at the Oval, Pearce took advantage of the bland rowing tank. Eight tired bodies sat ruefully in “the tank.” Eight seats are fastened into concrete back-to-back. Each seat has an oar, which is placed in a large pool of water. The team attempted to row, and Pearce subsequently ordered them to do drills to build up their summer-ruined technique.

“I could barely keep my eyes open,” said one exhausted rower who hadn’t yet adjusted to the season’s grind.

Eventually, Pearce sent them upstairs to work with Rutledge on the ergs. As they ran to Rutledge, thaey all filed past two photos of foreign rowers competing at the Beijing Olympics—a constant reminder of Rutledge’s responsibilities.

For all that the facilities offer, however, there is nothing like an on-water practice. Dry-land training does not replicate the on-water psychological warfare that plays out in regattas.

On the following Saturday, Sabo-Walsh’s shell started one drill a metre or two behind Lui’s shell. Two kilometres into the piece, Lui’s shell was roughly ten boat-lengths ahead.
In the next exercise, Sabo-Walsh got an early lead, and Lui’s boat slipped further and further behind.

Rutledge did not crack a whip. But he did point out what had happened, grumbling, “You are down, and you give up. That’s shit.”

It’s these lapses that Rutledge must overcome.

Prior to an afternoon workout, Rutledge ordered his team off the couches. Without hesitation, the crew got up and congregated around him. After determining the shell’s seating order, Rutledge set the standard, once again:

“This is a varsity sport. We’re here to fucking win….We’re not here to slap ass in the shower….We’re here to support each other.”

“Let’s go out there and beat the shit out of ourselves, so that we can beat the shit out of UVic.”

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