Video of the final

The happy ending

YAY!!!!! So, it's taken some time for my feet to hit the ground and hence my ability to sit down at a computer to write the final account. WOW, first of all you have no idea how much your words of support & encouragement have meant to me. I am truly blessed to have people so many AMAZING friends to share this journey with me. You have all touched my life in unique ways and I am thankful for that.

So I'm pretty sure I don't have to give you the play-by-play since I'm sure the media at home has captured it all in interviews etc. but I will tell you a story. When I was a little girl (grade 5) my parents bought me a magician kit for Christmas. I practiced the tricks and honed my skills and when I felt I was ready I took it to the stage (that being the living room of our house). When I finished the show, my mom being the only member in the audience, cheered loudly and gasped in awe. I distinctly remember the look on her face and her words, "wow, Tracy, you really are magic!". I was so proud. Now, fast forward...we are in the grandstands after my race and I am seeing my family for the first time since "the show".... deja vu literally occurred....albeit this time there were a few more fans in the audience...I saw the look on everyone face of how truly proud they were & when my mom grabbed me her exact words were..."wow, Tracy, you really are magic!".

So now my mission is clear; I want to be that person who plants the seed of magic and belief into our future Olympians at home. I know the power of words and I promise that everything that you have given to me will continue to be passed on as I serve my communities.

Whew, well I need to lighten it up a bit here; the dessert(s...yes plural) and parties have been phenomenal. I am living the life of a rock-star and loving every minute of it!!!! Those details and more as the saga continues .

Tracy

Congrats from back home!

Tracy and Melanie a big - CONGRATULATIONS on your win -what a race - great preformance - Olympic Medalist - wow

cheers from Enfield NS Dan


Hi Tracy,
Congratulations to you and Melanie on winning your medal.We were up this morning watching and cheering for you, how exciting. We are very proud of your accomplishment. Hope to see you when you come home.

Greg & Melvina Soubliere ( Nelson )


Hi Tracy,

Congrats on winning the bronze medal!! Good job!

Dwayne Spencer, Shubie.


congratulations tracy!

i turned on nbc's olympic coverage this morning as i sat in my living room in st. paul, mn and randomly began watching women's lightweight double sculls. they listed the medal winners and i was thrilled to recognize you name!! it has been a long time. congratulations again and all the best tracy.

gabe caron

Amazing!!!

Tracy and Melanie came THIRD with a time of 6:56.68 - 14 seconds faster than the Semis! What a barn burner!

Tracy and Mel, congratulations! Time to get used to hearing "Olympic Medalist" before your name - for always!

NBCOlympics.com video

The big kahuna!

Well my friends today is the day! It's the day that I have been dreaming of since I was a little girl; who knew that on the day of my Olympic final I'd be sipping my coffee solo at 4:30am watching the sun come up in Beijing in total peace and harmony!

Over the past 72 hours I have experienced major emotions that are hard to describe. I've gone from having feelings of wanting to run away, simply saying to Al & Mel "well it's been a slice, thanks for the good times, I'm outta here" to "alright, I feel unstoppable, let's get 'er goin'". Yesterday when I heard that many crews/athletes had to pull out of racing due to a stomach bug, I basically turned into a hypochondriac and started taking on physiological symptoms...when I started to logically analyze the situation I realized that my discomfort may have been caused by the copious amounts of coffee that I had consumed that day. After a hot bath and some neutral food homoeostasis returned to the underworld- whew!!

So, am I ready? I looked back in my journal and realized that I hadn't missed a single practice this year; I have not had to deal with injury; I have a strong partner; we have done the training that has produced champions; we have a coach who is at his 8th Olympic games and has prepared us for every possible scenario; we have a phenomenal support team; I have a company (Midnight Oil & Daylight Energy) who have backed me financially since the beginning of this journey, who have taken care of my day to day worries of "where is the money going to come from for this months rent and groceries"; I have piles and piles of people who believe in me and have faith that I have what it takes to bring home the gold; we have faced every single crew in this final and we know their tactics and have confidence in our own; I know how to sing Oh Canada in both French and English. So am I ready? Hell yeah!!!!!!!

Thank you all sooooooo much for sharing my journey! xoxo T

C'mon let's go row row row!

Go Trac Go!! We'll be cheerin in Jo and Dom's living room in Urbania tonight! We love you! I am soo proud of you for following and living your dreams... emotions take over when we see your smiling face on the tv. Jim and everyone at Curly's send all the best wishes in the world and want another star appearance when you get home!

You're my hero!

Lots of love
Amy xoxo...
jkhbkhfhkfr (that's "kick butt Tracy", from Jack)

Tracey and Melanie

Just a brief note to congratulation you folks on your semifinal on Friday - go for the gold on Sunday - yous can do it - awesome -

cheers from Enfield Nova Scotia
Dan

Local Shubie boy Rob Eldridge,

Just wanted to wish you all the best. Everyone is sooo proud of you and we hope you can bring home the gold. Go Tracy! Oh I'll be up at 4am cheering you on.

love Rob.


Tracy,

All the best in your final race. We, in Shubie,(and the corridor area) are so excited and proud of you and Melanie ! May the Olympic Gods and Goddesses smile upon you !

You are an inspiration to us all.
God Bless

Michelle Anthony (Paulette's sister!)



Hey Girl - YAHOO - We are so proud of you ! Mom and I are here at my office, came in to send you our message. We have been up since 2 am and we did get to see the race. We know that you have an angel rowing with you and that Dad will be very pleased ! We talked with your Mom just before we left the house and she said that the place is beautiful and that they are being treated very very well.

We will be watching on Sunday, as well as many River Johners. The Community is all watching you.

Best of Luck to you and Mel. Hugs for you all.!!!

ps - we will have our little Easter Duckies lined up to watch ................................

Lots of Love, Kenda and Grammie
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

This is it!

GO time! The last four years (well longer than that, actually) have all led to this moment!

Let's all cheer for Tracy and Mel!!!

Race time: 3:30PM Beijing, 3:30AM Ontario, 12:30AM Victoria.

Family and friends say hi

Hi Tracey, just a note to wish you luck!!!! Give them hell but leave the blasted handbasket behind!!!!!!
-Anonymous

Hey Tracy,

Well darlin you and Mel did it again, I just know you are going to bring home a medal. We are soooo proud of you and happy for you, all your hard work is now paying off.

Good luck and I will be watching and cheering you and Mel on. Bring home the gold girls.

Go Tracy Go.

Love and hugs, Aunt Audrey and cousins Amanda and Trevor.

You Gals are Great! We are so PROUD of you and want to let you know that the River Johners in Nova Scotia are watching & wishing you luck. Your grandmother and I will be watching on Sunday and all our hopes & prayers are with you. We are sure that you have a guardian angel with you (Grandfather Grant) and that he would be so proud. I haven't forgot what you told me at Curleys in July when I said the next time I see you I want the gold around your neck and your response was "Consider It Done!" Well girl you are on your way!

-Love Grandmother Grant & Kenda XOXOXO

Hi Tracy,

Dave and Diana MacPhee of Shubenacadie are cheering for you. Our son Jon is a good friend of your great cousin, Ben. We know you can win the gold. Give it more than you've got!! We'll be watching, for sure!

Semifinals results...

And Tracy and Melanie WIN their heat in 7:10.70. The Chinese and Greeks also advance. From the first heat, the Dutch, the Fins, and the Germans are in. The world champion Australians are out!

More soon, but the gold medal race should be AWESOME. GO TRACY and MEL!

NBCOlympics video link

(If someone in Canada can send me the CBC.ca video link I can post it - I can't access CBC video from the U.S. because we are blacked out due to NBC's contract.)

Update from Tracy

Exact race time tonight 3:40am Ontario time.

More posts

Here's a link to Tracy's message wall at the CBC.ca site:

Tracy's message wall

More notes from back home

Good luck to you Tracy & Melanie. Tracy we are all so proud to have a Family member make the Olympics. We all get up pretty early to watch you compete as it is a special event for you, but also for us to watch you in the Olympics.

Good luck again Tracy, enjoy & bring home the Gold.

Glenn & Laura Nelson Melvin & Elaine Nelson

Hi Tracy we are all so proud and excited for you. All the best to you and Melanie.

-Melvina Soubliere ( Nelson )

Rain rain go away

So as many of you have discovered in the wee hours the races were canceled today due to inclement weather! The good news is we've prepared for this; we laugh in the face of the storm.

Seriously though, I think that it is our God given advantage. The delay makes it tough for the girls who are struggling to make weight, one more weigh-in can take its toll. Luckily Mel and I are doing fine weight wise and still feeling very strong, so we are just rolling with this one!

Same place, same time, same channel... but tomorrow... until then Bú kèqi (goodbye).

The suspense is killing me...

Because of thunderstorms, Tracy's semifinal race has been delayed until Friday! The heats start at 2:10am Ontario time Friday morning (2:10pm Beijing time). Specific timing updates to follow.

From NBCOlympics.com:

Thunder leaves oars silent

Because of rain, racing has been postponed to Friday, with semifinals for the LM2x, LW2x, LM4- and M4x, and the B, C, D and E finals for the W1x, M1x, M2-, W20 W2x, M2x and M4- beginning at 2:10am EST.



More rowing news from NBCOlympics.com

Go Tracy Go!

Hey Tracy it's Kendelle. I am soooo proud of you! Being your team mate for many years in high school, I know that you have the stregnth, determination and heart to do your best. We will be cheering you on,screaming at our TV's and praying for you.

Lots of hugs from home!

Hey Tracy!

This page is so great, we are excited to watch you and cheer you on.

You, without a doubt have what it takes to get there . . . you have instilled so much faith in others to chase their dreams and it is so amazing to see you living yours!

Can't wait to watch tommorow :-)

The Hartzler gang!~

Semi-final line up

Next up:

Semifinal LW2x @ 3:40pm Thursday; top three will advance to the final.

Lane 1- Japan

Lane 2- USA

Lane 3- Australia

Lane 4- China

Lane 5- Canada

Lane 6- Greece

What can I say...we are getting to the point where good crews will not make it through. I expect it to be a barn burner. No one in this race will concede; they are all tough competitors and will never never never let off until after they've crossed the line!!! So, having said all of that Mel and I are focused and are taking a task oriented approach to the race. After the heats we identified a few key technical points that we will emphases tomorrow. We will be relentless, we will stay focused, we will execute our plan, and we will allow the boat to do the job that it was designed to do (run with speed and efficiency).

Okay, time for bed! (night, night)

Please send photos

To friends and family - Please send photos that would be OK to post here so that we can make a nice "virtual scrapbook" for Tracy to enjoy while she's in China. They can be of anything, they don't have to be rowing!

Click here to send email or use your own web email (click on "attachments" to send a photo).

Thanks again!

-Peter

The fans speak!

Comments from today:

Hello Tracy from Gramma Grant and Kenda. All of River John sends you their support !

Hi Tracy,
I want to wish you the very best luck and I have all the faith in the world you will be getting an olympic medal. I still remember the little girl who use to babysit for me sometimes and I miss seeing her. Everyone in the Nelson family send their love and we are all watching for you to race. I set my clock and got up at 4am and watched your race on Sunday morning, I was so proud of you I cried. Love and hugs from old Aunt Audrey.


Tracy, we wish you the very best, to do the very best you can.
Remember, your grand mother Grant is watching.
Big hugs to you and Melanie,

-Andy and Cathy

Hi Trac! Just a quick note to say congrats on the first race, it was amazing! We all gathered around Jo's tv to watch, cheer, yell and bawl our eyes out! Good luck thursday... we'll be cheering as loud as we can! Have fun!
Love your extremely proud cousin Amy xoxo...

The heats recap

Hey gang!

Thank you to all you crazy people who set alarms to get up in the wee hours of the morning at home to cheer us on. Also, thank you to all who cheered us on (despite waiting to decent hour) while enjoying the replays over a nice cup of java!

We are pleased to have come in the top two, which put us directly through to the semi on Thursday. It is always nice to avoid one race (the repachage) if possible!! Just having the first race under our belts is excellent; we may have been a little excited but now we've got the jitters out and are well underway in our preparation for the next phase.

We've done our video review/analysis, we've re-hashed the race, we've determined a few key focuses, and now we are looking forward to our next opportunity on Thursday. We will know the draw after the reps tomorrow.

Stayed tuned, T

Results and video

Tracy and Melanie came second in their qualifying heat with a time of 6:54.07.

Link to full results.

Click here for video (NBC Olympics site)

Good luck for the semifinals! Semi's will be on August 14, 2008 at 15:30 China time (3:30am Ontario time, 12:30am BC time).

First race line-up...

Hey Team!!

Well I'm getting ready for bed; it's the night before!!!!! Crazy. We are ready, confident and poised.

Quickly, here is the line-up:
Lane One- Great Britain
Lane Two- Greece
Lane Three- Canada ...
Lane Four- Germany
Lane Five- South Africa
Lane Six- Finland

Race time- 3pm in Beijing (3am in Ontario)
Weather prediction- headwind, chance of rain, slightly cooler temperature = slower race times.

All for now! Thank you all for your best wishes and support; you can count on me bringing that energy into the boat tomorrow !!!

Tracy

A glimpse of village life

As I mentioned yesterday, although we are not living in the village due to the distance from our venue, on Sunday we were fortunate enough to explore the facilities. The enormity of it was overwhelming, an area of 66 hectares and home to 16,000 athletes and officials.

The main hub, or International zone, boasts a plethora of facilities and services. If you need a hair cut or your nails done, no worries just pop into the salon. Need a bank, a florist, dry cleaner, merchandise, post officer/courier centre, mobile phone, photo shop, internet café, movie theatre, or perhaps even a ticket office to book future travel? Again, no problem, it’s all right there and ours for the taking!

If you are a video analysis junkie, then you can get more than your fix at the sport tech centre in the Canadian house. They have a room that is dedicated to all incoming video footage from every venue at all times. The video streams are then filed, categorized, etc. and accessible for review. So let’s say I’m on the soccer team and I am playing Portugal tomorrow and I want to know more about the striker (#19). I could sit down at my handy computer, punch in #19, and every video clip with her in it would be at my fingertips! I dare not attempt to describe the other analytical & technological capabilities that can be accessed from this room as my lack of understanding in this area would not due it justice.

The final honorable mention is the dining hall. OH MY GOODNESS. Can I just say heaven on earth, and I’m not kidding! It’s the size of a football field; upon entrance you have to pause to decide which way to go. If you choose to go right you would enter the Mediterranean Cuisine section: all the freshest fruits and veggies you can imagine along with nicely grilled meats. If you choose to go left you’d end up in the Asian Cuisine section with your choice of local fare. Or if you simply walked straight ahead you’d enter the International Cuisine Section where you’d find the staples of any diet. In addition to the different ethnic cuisine zones the dessert section is centrally located and does not discriminate between nationalities…let’s face it dessert is universal! Finally if you have a craving for a Big Mac, McDonald’s has staked a claim at the far end of the building. Melanie has already claimed that she will be frequenting the joint to indulge in Mcflurries during the second week (when all is said and done), perhaps I will join her (a girls’ gotta dream)!!

All for now, Cheers, Tracy

The lead in to...

After years of anticipation we are just days away from the beginning of the biggest athletic event of my life. Everyone has been asking, “are you excited”& “what’s it like”?

First let me take you back a few weeks. Al Morrow, our coach, has been to seven Olympic games and has had numerous successful crews along the way, so I have total faith in our program and his ability to lead us to a peak performance. I mentioned in my last e-mail that we were reaching a point where all the hard work was done and we were entering the fine tuning phase. Okay, I may have been wrong about the hard work thing…little did I know then that we were about to enter another loading (aka. Killer) phase…never the less, I am happy to report that we survived! One by 2000m will be easy after what we've just been through in practices.

Aside from the workouts, I have to say that Al was brilliant in his approach to our mental preparation & getting us ready for what we are about to experience here in Beijing . A few times a week the three of us (Mel, Al and I) would sit down at the breakfast table and have a round table discussion. It was during these breakfast talks that the excitement began to mount for me; topics included beliefs (about ourselves & our competitors), incentives, and how to maintain the positive energy and keep it fun (one of my favorites)! It never failed….after every meeting my step was a little lighter….and I became more and more excited about heading to the start line.

Fast forward; we’ve made it! We have settled into our hotel; we aren’t staying in the village as our venue is an hour drive outside of the city. Since we arrived early we’ve been able to create an environment at the venue where it feels like our home turf. So already we feel very comfortable in our surroundings and its back to business as usual! Despite being removed from the “main hub” in the city we made the trek into the village on Sunday, so we were able to experience a bit of the magic that makes the Olympics different from any other regatta….but that is a story for tomorrow.

Have a great day! Cheers, Tracy

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