Four years ago in 2004, UTC alumnus Dan Beery ('00) stood on the podium with his 8-member crew after winning the gold medal 8x sweep rowing event at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. Three years later, Beery once again found himself listening to the USA National Anthem after he and his 5-member crew took the gold medal in the men's coxed four (4+) event at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany.
We spoke with Dan just days after returning from Germany as he was about to go speak about his Olympic and World Championship rowing experience to a group of high school students in Louisville, Kentucky.
Q. First off, thank you for speaking with us and congratulations on winning gold at the World Championships. How does it feel to once again find yourself on the gold medal podium?
A.
It's great. We worked really hard and weren't sure if we would be able to hold off the Serbian boat. But we ended up crossing the line one second before they did.
US Men's Coxed Four Crew(4+) Gold Medal Winners
(LtoR) Matthew Deakin, UTC Alum Dan Beery, Sam Burns, Chris Liwski & Ned Del Guercio
Q. As you were standing on the podium at the Olympics and now at the World Championships, what were you feeling as you watched the USA flag being raised and our national anthem being played?
The Olympics was so surreal. It’s hard to explain, but I was so far down in the depth chart of rowers that I never thought it would happen. It’s a complex feeling. When I put on the US uniform, I really feel like it's my job to win. And it just feels like I have to do everything I can to get a gold medal for my country. And as I trained for the World Championships, I really tried to prepare myself athletically to be on the podium and to hear the anthem. And it feels good to know I was able to do that for my country. There's something about standing up there as they raise the flag. Our flag to me just stands for the American idealism that makes me so proud to be on the podium.
Q. You mentioned that you were a big basketball player at one time. How did you end up getting into rowing?
I came from southwest Indiana to play basketball at Bryan College, but I ended up transferring to UTC. One day I was at the gym and Espy (UTC Rowing Coach, Robert Espeseth) just asked me to try out rowing. So I tried it and it was so tough that at first I really ended up not liking it. But I kept at it and ended up really loving it. And it was within one year that I ended up going to the Olympic training camps, mainly because I was blessed with what I learned from Espy.
People just don’t know how good Espeseth is at coaching rowing. The kids [in the UTC club based rowing team] have to do so much on their own to fund the program. Yet, he’s legendary in rowing, especially when he was racing in the ‘80s. He won a World Championship in ’86. And here he was at UTC coaching me.
Q. Tell us about your 4 teammates on your gold-medal World Championship crew.
They are a really special group. Chris Liwski was also an '04 Olympic team mate of mine, but he didn’t get to race because he was an alternate. Sam [Burns] had to wait on some competitions because an injury that I faced that kept us from racing. And Matt Deakin also had back injury to deal with. But after our training, it all just came together this year. I’ve also had some great times with Ned (Del Guercio), our coxswain who I also competed with since 2000. So it was just cool to win with those guys.
Q. I read that the event you raced in, the Men’s coxed four (4+), will no longer be a part of the World Rowing Championships. Why is that?
In Olympic rowing, they have all kinds of events, like they do in track and field. Yet there were just too many events happening. In order to grow the sport they [the Federation Internationale des Soceites d'Aviron, or FISA - the international governing body for the sport of rowing] created the lightweight rowing division, so they had to take away some of the open weight events to include the lightweight events in the Olympics. It basically came down to funding. And so they decided to take out the coxed four.
It’s tough. It’s a great boat to race in to show that you deserve to be on the Olympic team. And to take away that event, it may effect how the Olympic coaches pick the rowers for their teams. A lot of the countries, like Germany and the Dutch, really want to have the event back, but other smaller countries, which have smaller pools of rowers, can’t field teams in all the events, so they don’t enter the boats in those events. And so they [FISA] felt that they needed to even out the racing field.
Q. Which countries are the powerhouses of rowing in international competitions?
Great Britain and Germany are very strong and China and Russian are always good, although there’s speculation that they are doping. The challenge for us [the US team] is to be clean and to set clean world records. And it seems like all the world records will be tainted from doping one day. And we have to compete against teams who have a doping advantage. And that takes a toll on our athletes. All the training and competing we have to do to contend against doping competitors just wears us down.
Q. What is your typical training day like?
We practice three times a day and just recently we’ve shifted into overdrive to prepare for the Olympics. We start at about 8 a.m. with some rowing for a good thirty minutes, then breakfast, then back and row for another hour and a half and then come back in the afternoon and do another section of rowing. It gets pretty intense to the point where some guys have to bail out from getting sick.
Q. Do you have any pre-race rituals?
Not really. I have certain things I like to eat at certain times. I try to keep a certain weight, like a mathematical equation. I eat what I need to have a good race.
Q. Will you be competing in the 2008 Olympics?
Well, there’s no way to answer that quite yet. We almost have too much talent here in the U.S. I think I deserve to be on the team. But it just depends on the coaches picks of all the qualified racers. They’ll announce it in June and finalize the selection.
Q. What do you do when you aren’t rowing?
I work for Home Depot in their Olympic Job Opportunities Program, which helps sponsor the Olympic athletes. I’m in the lawn and garden section. I’m now an expert at fertilizers. We don’t get much time off. But I have a ’72 Scout that I got up in New Hampshire and it’s great fun to work on that.
Q. Tell us about your college experience at UTC?
I had a great educational background from UTC, especially from Dr. Fanning & Dr. Underwood, professors who had strong athletic experience. I learned a lot while I was at UTC and learned a lot personally from their instruction. One day I was talking to Dr. Underwood during college about my family, my commitments outside college and my future career and there was a moment I had where everything was clear at that point about what I wanted to do with my life. I just wanted to pursue my dream but not without hindering my family.
Also, Mr. Stetson’s music appreciation class was awesome. He was the coolest guy ever. At first I wanted to ditch the class, but he made his class so amazing. I still listen to Ravel Bolero because of him.
Q. What advice do you have for current students at UTC?
I think it’s such a big process to go through college. I guess my best advice is not to be afraid to take risks. For me, as far as my career in rowing has gone, it is largely because I took risks and took advantage of those around who helped me, like the professors I had.
And those risks have definitely paid off for you. You probably would never have made the Olympic Rowing Team if you hadn't taken the risk to just try rowing when Robert Espeseth asked you. And now you have an Olympic gold medal and numerous other rowing accomplishments.
Thank you again for speaking with us.
Thank you. I am just very blessed to do what I love.
- written September 7, 2007
- UTC Rowing Club
- Contact UTC Rowing Coach Robert Espeseth
-
2004 UTC article on Dan Beery following the 2004 Olympics in Athens
-
UTC Alum Wins Gold in Athens
- Rowing Facts & Terms
- Pictures from the 2007 World Rowing Championships
