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CWA Cable Splicer Takes Aim at 2000 Olympics
When Mike Harbold shows up for work at Bell Atlantic's Central Avenue Garage near Washington, D.C. at 7 a.m., he's already worked up a heavy sweat.
In good weather, the three-time Olympian puts in an hour or so before work doing sprints in his racing kayak on the Potomac River. If it's extremely cold, Mike lifts weights and works out on a stationary rowing machine at a gym.
Then at the end of the day, after putting in a full shift as a cable splicing technician, Mike goes back out on the water for another hour of paddling. As if that doesn't keep him busy enough, he also volunteers three days a week to coach less experienced kayakers at the Washington Canoe Club on D.C.'s Georgetown waterfront.
Mike's wife Alexandra understands fully why he endures this grueling schedule - she's an Olympic sprint kayaker too. They met at a Florida training camp just before the 1988 Olympics, and now they're both aiming for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
A member of CWA Local 2108 in Landover, Md., Mike hired on with Bell Atlantic a year ago in an attempt "to get some stability and security in our lives," he says, after years of temporary and part-time jobs interspersed with training and traveling to races and development camps. "It's a great job with great union benefits and pay."
He will use his vacation time in March to train for three weeks with other potential Olympians in Melbourne, Fla. After that, he's hoping that Bell Atlantic will sponsor him as part of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Jobs Opportunities Program, allowing him to participate in the World's Team Trials and, in August, the two-week U.S. Nationals in Lake Placid, N.Y. Major companies involved in the program, such as UPS, Home Depot and J.C. Penney, provide flexible, part-time schedules at full salary to Olympic athletes.
Outriggers to Kayaks
Mike Harbold grew up on the island of Oahu where, "I first started paddling around age 9 in outrigger canoes like you see in all the films about Hawaii." Seasoned paddlers saw that he had potential. "Someone suggested that I try an Olympic sprint kayak and I got pretty good at it."
Indeed, by age 19 Mike was part of the four-man U.S. kayak crew at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. The U.S. team didn't make it into the finals that year. In Barcelona, four years later, Mike and a partner did place eighth in the double men's boat. In 1996, by placing first in the U.S. National Team Trials, Mike raced solo in Atlanta.
Thus, Mike has never raced in the same boat twice, and, "I don't think I've reached my potential yet. I've got the experience now in all of those boats, and that should really help me go for a medal next time if I can get all the way to Sydney."
Experience is supremely important in racing these tricky boats. According to Elizabeth Pennisi, a Washington writer who also is an avid paddler training out of the Harbolds' boat club:
"Sprint kayaking is a sport that requires combining the balance and precision demanded by gymnasts with the speed achieved by track sprinters. The kayaks are nothing like the white water boats or sea kayaks one often sees. They are extremely lightweight and angular, and demand incredible concentration and good balance just to keep them upright.
"Even the seemingly familiar double-bladed paddle is different, shaped in such a way that a slip of the wrist can cause the blade to stop short in the water, toppling the boat.
"Beginners are told that they should expect to paddle some 300 miles before they get the hang of it, and another hundred or so to master the use of these sophisticated blades. And that doesn't begin to suggest the training it takes to compete with elite athletes from all over the world in 500, 1,000 or 3,000-meter races.
"Then, success in the two- and four-person team boats requires that all members of that crew be in perfect synchrony as they stroke. Being slightly ahead or behind, even briefly, can cost key microseconds that make all the difference in a tight race."
Now at age 30, Mike Harbold thinks he's just coming into his prime in a sport that demands skill and experience along with endurance and strength. "Physically it's more like running than a sport, say, like gymnastics where you're over the hill by your early twenties," he says. "Most top Olympic paddlers have been in their thirties."
Having made the last three Olympic teams hasn't diminished Mike's ambition in the sport at all, he says. Each year and each Olympiad has brought new challenges and goals. For 2000, that goal is to "strive to be best in the world," to bring honor to the United States, and to return next time with an Olympic medal to cap off more than 12 years of sacrifice and hard training.
In good weather, the three-time Olympian puts in an hour or so before work doing sprints in his racing kayak on the Potomac River. If it's extremely cold, Mike lifts weights and works out on a stationary rowing machine at a gym.
Then at the end of the day, after putting in a full shift as a cable splicing technician, Mike goes back out on the water for another hour of paddling. As if that doesn't keep him busy enough, he also volunteers three days a week to coach less experienced kayakers at the Washington Canoe Club on D.C.'s Georgetown waterfront.
Mike's wife Alexandra understands fully why he endures this grueling schedule - she's an Olympic sprint kayaker too. They met at a Florida training camp just before the 1988 Olympics, and now they're both aiming for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
A member of CWA Local 2108 in Landover, Md., Mike hired on with Bell Atlantic a year ago in an attempt "to get some stability and security in our lives," he says, after years of temporary and part-time jobs interspersed with training and traveling to races and development camps. "It's a great job with great union benefits and pay."
He will use his vacation time in March to train for three weeks with other potential Olympians in Melbourne, Fla. After that, he's hoping that Bell Atlantic will sponsor him as part of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Jobs Opportunities Program, allowing him to participate in the World's Team Trials and, in August, the two-week U.S. Nationals in Lake Placid, N.Y. Major companies involved in the program, such as UPS, Home Depot and J.C. Penney, provide flexible, part-time schedules at full salary to Olympic athletes.
Outriggers to Kayaks
Mike Harbold grew up on the island of Oahu where, "I first started paddling around age 9 in outrigger canoes like you see in all the films about Hawaii." Seasoned paddlers saw that he had potential. "Someone suggested that I try an Olympic sprint kayak and I got pretty good at it."
Indeed, by age 19 Mike was part of the four-man U.S. kayak crew at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. The U.S. team didn't make it into the finals that year. In Barcelona, four years later, Mike and a partner did place eighth in the double men's boat. In 1996, by placing first in the U.S. National Team Trials, Mike raced solo in Atlanta.
Thus, Mike has never raced in the same boat twice, and, "I don't think I've reached my potential yet. I've got the experience now in all of those boats, and that should really help me go for a medal next time if I can get all the way to Sydney."
Experience is supremely important in racing these tricky boats. According to Elizabeth Pennisi, a Washington writer who also is an avid paddler training out of the Harbolds' boat club:
"Sprint kayaking is a sport that requires combining the balance and precision demanded by gymnasts with the speed achieved by track sprinters. The kayaks are nothing like the white water boats or sea kayaks one often sees. They are extremely lightweight and angular, and demand incredible concentration and good balance just to keep them upright.
"Even the seemingly familiar double-bladed paddle is different, shaped in such a way that a slip of the wrist can cause the blade to stop short in the water, toppling the boat.
"Beginners are told that they should expect to paddle some 300 miles before they get the hang of it, and another hundred or so to master the use of these sophisticated blades. And that doesn't begin to suggest the training it takes to compete with elite athletes from all over the world in 500, 1,000 or 3,000-meter races.
"Then, success in the two- and four-person team boats requires that all members of that crew be in perfect synchrony as they stroke. Being slightly ahead or behind, even briefly, can cost key microseconds that make all the difference in a tight race."
Now at age 30, Mike Harbold thinks he's just coming into his prime in a sport that demands skill and experience along with endurance and strength. "Physically it's more like running than a sport, say, like gymnastics where you're over the hill by your early twenties," he says. "Most top Olympic paddlers have been in their thirties."
Having made the last three Olympic teams hasn't diminished Mike's ambition in the sport at all, he says. Each year and each Olympiad has brought new challenges and goals. For 2000, that goal is to "strive to be best in the world," to bring honor to the United States, and to return next time with an Olympic medal to cap off more than 12 years of sacrifice and hard training.