Longtime teammates now have gold in their grasp

By Steve Kelley | Seattle Times • Published August 19, 2008

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BEIJING - Ten years ago, without ever knowing exactly where it would lead, Mary Whipple and Anna Mickelson began preparing for this moment.

They climbed into a boat together at the University of Washington and started their around-the-globe odyssey.

For 10 years they rowed through the pre-dawn mists. Ten years they spent together in the weight room. Ten years in the boat. Ten years of tiring, glamourless work. Ten years traveling around the world, for this moment.

All that time they were looking for gold.

And 10 years later, half a world from home, they found it.

"This (gold) was always in the plans," said Anna (Mickelson) Cummins, who, during the journey, fell in love with and married former national team member Bob Cummins.

The United States won its only Beijing rowing gold Sunday. Whipple was the coxswain of the winning women’s eight and Cummins was in the middle of the boat.

"I really do feel complete," Cummins said. "After ⅛winning silver in⅜ Athens I really thought, ’I wonder what I could really do if I worked really hard for four more years?’ And now I know."

And every day Whipple was there with her. Teaching her.

Pushing her. Training with her.

"Mary and I have a friendship that has grown out of a common respect for what we do out on the water," Cummins said. "It’s like we’re connected like sisters. There’s this quiet confidence that we have with one another. I trust Mary completely and that’s a cool thing to have going into an Olympic finals."

This was Cummins’ final race. She is retiring, moving back to Bellevue from Princeton, N.J., and preparing to start a family.

She is leaving on top of the world, after beating Netherlands, Romania, Canada, Germany and Austria in Sunday’s final. She is leaving knowing she finished what she and Whipple started a decade ago on the Montlake Cut.

"It’s a perfect ending to a great relationship," Whipple said.

They have been the ideal battery, like Bob Gibson and Tim McCarver. They understand each other the way best friends and close teammates do. They get each other.