Erin Cafaro

Hobbies

Supporting the San Francisco Giants baseball team, watching action movies, running, basketball, eating, sleeping. (US Rowing, 30 Jun 2008, worldrowing.com, 06 Nov 2010)

Occupation

Athlete, Fitness Instructor, Student

Education

Political Science, Sport Management - University of California Berkeley [2006] / Drexel University , United States

Language(s) spoken

English

Club name

USRowing Training Center, Princeton, NJ, USA

Coach

Tom Terhaar (usrowing.org, 2011)

Position and style

Sweep (usrowing.org, 2008)

Other sports

Her brother played football for University of California. (usrowing.org, 2009)

Debut

2005 for United States (US Rowing, 25 Jan 2010)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
She began rowing in 2001 at the Stockton Rowing Club, United States. (US Rowing, 30 Jun 2008)

Reason for taking up this sport
She became interested in rowing after reading an article on former US national team rower Ali Cox in a local newspaper. (US Rowing, 30 Jun 2008)

Ambitions
Beyond the sport she hopes to continue her education in sports management and work with collegiate or professional athletes. (US Rowing, 25 Jan 2010)

Training
She incorporates Crossfit training into her strength and conditioning training. She is a Crossfit Level I Certified coach, and a Crossfit Subject Matter Expert for rowing. (erincafaro22.com, 2011)

Most memorable sporting achievement
Winning gold in the women's eight at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. (US Rowing, 25 Jan 2010)

Hero
Baseballer Will Clark. (boston.com, 18 Oct 2009)

Superstitions / Rituals
She always adds 22 seconds to any workout or warm-up. The number 22 comes from the jersey number of Will Clark - her favourite US baseballer growing up. (US Rowing, 25 Jan 2010)

Sporting philosophy / motto
"Work hard. Relax hard. Find your weakness and make it your strength." (row2k.com, 25 Jan 2010)

Awards
She had a racing shell dedicated to her at the University of California's Crew Alumni Day in 2010. (modbee.com, 16 Mar 2010)

She and partner Susan Francia were awarded 2009 FISA World Crew of the Year for their performances at the World Rowing Championships that year. (erincafaro22.com, 2011)

She was named 2009 US Rowing Athlete of the Year. (US Rowing, 25 Jan 2010)

Alongside partner Susan Francia she was nominated for the 2009 Crew of the Year award by the row2k.com website. (row2k.com, 03 Dec 2009)

In 2009 she won gold in the women's 2- event at the World Rowing Championships, the first time in US Rowing women's history. (erincafaro22.com, 2011)

She was part of the Beijing Olympic Games gold medal winning women's eight that was named FISA World Rowing Female Crew of the Year in 2008. (FISA, 2008)

General
CROSSFIT TRAINING
During her 2008 Olympic Games training she discovered CrossFit, a strength and conditioning training regime involving weightlifting, sprinting, gymnastics, powerlifting, kettlebell training, plyometrics, rowing, and medicine ball training. She is a Crossfit Level I Certified coach, and a Crossfit Subject Matter Expert for rowing. Her website says she has "incorporated the training ideologies, concepts and workouts into her full time, year round rowing program [and] feels that everyone can make a huge difference in their conditioning by using this philosophy and techniques". (erincafaro22.com, 22 Dec 2011)

TOUGH START
She revealed that in the early days of her partnership with Susan Francia they struggled to work as a team, often coming to blows about disagreements. "Early on we had some awful, awful rows. There were some days when we came off the water and were frustrated with each other and we were actually wrestling in the Princeton boathouse. It was halfway joking, but serious. That's how it is when you're in a small boat. There's nothing to defuse it.'' (boston.com, 18 Oct 2009)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008