The Road to 2012

And here we are, with the first big update for this website. Check back here to get the latest on the journey of Sam Ritchie (that’s me) and David Petrovics to the 2012 Olympics in the sport of Sprint Kayak. To understand the mission, you’ll do best by reading a little bit about what makes us tick and why we think we can make a good run at the Games.

A Little Bit About Us!

Sam Ritchie

I started kayaking in 4th grade, joining one of my classmates down at the Washington Canoe Club for informal practice in the canoe a few days a week. I wasn’t the best at coordination sports, and the solo aspect of the sport drew me in. I began to improve as more and more athletes joined the program down at the WCC, eventually earning a spot at the National Championships in 1996 as a Bantam and learning as much as I could about racing from the coaches.

In 2000 I won my first medal at the National Championships in the K4 200m, and the next year won the K1 bantam events in both the 500m and the 1000m. I ranked in the top three Junior paddlers in the nation every year until college, attending two Junior World Championships (Komatsu, Japan in 2003 and Szeged, Hungary in 2005) and earning spots on three consecutive US National Teams. I raced both the K1 and K4 in Japan, but by Junior Worlds in Hungary had committed to the K2 with my partner David Petrovics.

I put kayaking aside for a season in 2006 to focus on school–David and I had both earned spots at Princeton University, and were settling down into the long road towards Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering degrees. In ‘07, I decided it was time to pick up the paddle again and convinced Dave to jump back in the K2 with me. We both attended the US National Team Trials in the Spring of 2007 and earned spots on the Pan American Games US Team, once again racing in the K2 over 1000m. We finished 7th in the A-Final, and decided then and there that we would begin to focus long term on a spot at the 2012 Olympics in the K2.

So that’s where I am now, in my Junior year as a Princeton Engineer, trying to fit training in around the school work and having fun in the process. This year, due to the complexity of Olympic trials (we won’t be able to make the team without putting our educations on hold and attending a series of training camps throughout the year, not an option at this point) I’ve decided to take up training for Ironman Louisville this coming August. the aerobic base, nutrition habits and discipline about training that I’ll learn from this journey will set me and Dave up on the path to our short term goal–the 2009 World Championships in Nova Scotia.For more personal stuff, hobbies, favorite foods, and all that stuff, see the bio page on the site!

David Petrovics

Flatwater sprint kayaking has always been a bit of a family tradition for me. My entire extended family lives in Hungary, where kayaking is really popular. Two of my uncles competed at the world championship level, and they share several medals between them. The elder of my two uncles, Kalman Petrovics, is a two time World Champion, in the 1990 K1 (singles) marathon and the 1985 K4 (four man kayak) 10,000 meters. My youngest uncle and godfather, Bela, also earned a bronze medal in the K2 (doubles) 1000. Their accomplishments have inspired me to also try my luck at the sport and to continue the family tradition.

Although kayaking is not as popular in the United States as it is in Europe, I was intent on finding a place to pursue the sport. In the summer of 1999, at age 12, I finally found the Washington Canoe Club (located in D.C.) I joined the team and have been a member of the club ever since. I attended my first nationals in Gainesville, GA, in 2000, where I placed 4^th in the K1-500 semifinal, narrowly missing the final. That summer was also the first time that I competed in the K2 with Sam, setting the stage for a really successful, long term partnership.

Several years later, at age 18, Sam and I raced and won the K2-500 and the K2-1000 meter events at the Junior National Team Trials in Lake Placid, NY. This performance qualified us for the Junior World Championships which were held later that summer in Szeged, Hungary. Unfortunately, Sam had a very untimely accident and broke his wrist days after our trials. He made a great recovery, however, and I stayed true to the K2 and we raced quite well at the Jr. Worlds given our setback. We placed in the semifinals and narrowly missed the B-Finals.

After Junior Worlds, I began my college career at Princeton University where I am majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and obtaining a Certificate (minor) in Finance. Both Sam and I train on Lake Carnegie, where we share the water with the Princeton crew team and the US National Rowing Team.

Our most recent competition was the K2-1000 meters at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We placed 7^th in the finals in a really tight race. It’s been our most impressive accomplishment to date, and we hope to do even better in the future.

Our Goals
To compete in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 World Championships, and to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Our Plans
Get our Princeton Bachelor’s degrees in June 2009 and then start the 3 year training phase leading up to the 2012 Olympics. Train in Chula Vista at the Olympic Training Center for our first year and abroad for the next two.

What We Need
Sponsorships in nutrition, kayaking apparel, kayaking equipment (boats and paddles), and other funding to cover travel and the inherent poverty of training full-time.

k2, kayak, olympics, philosophy, teamwork, training

One of the toughest parts of the transition from kayak to Ironman training is the emphasis on massive, lengthy endurance rides on the bike. I recently got myself a little iPod shuffle that keeps me company when the rain starts to come down and the road gets long (and the rain HAS come down on me, for my last two 4+ hour rides!) so the sanity is still intact, but that’s by no means a permanent thing. Below, we have a picture of me before my 82 mile trip up to Gettysburg (left) and a picture of me after the 4.5 hour trip. My wonderful mother who came to pick me up so far North of DC took these pics, so thanks so much to her!

The basic idea of the Ironman training is to spend as much time on the bike as I spend swimming and running combined. The swim training I’m doing focuses almost exclusively on technique, as this is where I’m going to be able to eke out the biggest gains for the 2.4 miles I’ll have to swim for Ironman Louisville this August. The cycling will give me the leg strength I need to do the marathon after the 112 mile bike leg, and since running introduces such a high chance of injury into the training I do a bit less of that than a typical marathoner would on a weekly basis. That funky rear wheel is a HED Jet 90 with a Powertap hub built into it–I’ll be using this power meter both for training and for pacing during my big races this year.

More on the Ironman training later; I’m excited about the website, and it feels good to complete this first post!

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