Women in the Minneapolis Rowing Club find challenge, camaraderie on the water
Rowing is one of the first sports of the Olympic games, and it's alive and thriving in Minneapolis.
It's a sitting sport that takes standing endurance.
"It's a lot. It's a lot of legs, right? So, it's the legs, and then your back and then your arms in that sequence," Caitlyn Skinner with the Minneapolis Rowing Club said. "It's just as important to control your body and your core and to move at the speed of the boat."
Skinner started rowing in college. Now she's on the Minneapolis Rowing Club's competition team. She pushes her team forward by bringing up the rear while finding physical challenge and mental respite.
"There's a sense of focus, right? So, I get a lot of focus time out on the water where I'm only thinking about how to move the boat faster, how to use my body to move the boat past a certain point," Skinner said. "And having that time to focus on that endeavor kind of clears my brain out a little bit for the rest of the day and everything I'm doing on land."
She later added, "It really is meditative and tough."
The competition team is so strong that several rowers have competed on the world stage.
What started in 1877 as a strictly men's club is now mostly women.
"We're building this, just a beautiful community that's really supportive of one another and our environment, too," Skinner said.
Tina Lund with the Minneapolis Rowing Club told WCCO, "I took Learn to Row here when I was 40, in 1988."
Lund added that she got into rowing because someone told her there were "good-looking men" in the club. The club didn't yield a husband, but she got a different kind of lifelong companionship.
Lund is 78 years young. WCCO asked how she thinks rowing has come into play with her body being strong.
"I think it's been super important. So, most of us, we will also lift weights a couple times a week. So, it's just a whole culture of staying healthy and staying in shape ... and we're all friends, so we do it together. So, it's really fun," she said.
