After her women's eight rowing team won gold medals in the World Cups in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany, Megan Dirkmaat, 28, learned from their coach that they would go to the Olympics in Athens.

Courtesy of University of California at Berkeley

Megan Dirkmaat, second from right, is a three-time national team champion in women's eight rowing. She is part of a highly-touted USA team expected to perform well in Olympics.

"You are the team; this is the boat," he told them. The selection was officially announced July 7.

"It still doesn't seem like reality," she said after the yearlong training and sorting process preceding the selection. But it will when "we finally get over there and take in the whole scene."

She is a three-time national team member and 2001 U.S. National champion in the eight. For the past four years her focus has been to make the Olympic team, but preparation for the Olympics really began when she was a junior high student and the local high school coach recruited her to rowing. After graduating from high school, she attended BYU and then was recruited to the University of California at Berkeley. While rowing there, she was winner of the Bettina Bents Award for loyalty, proficiency and spirit. Following graduation, she successfully trained at Princeton for the Olympics in one of the most demanding disciplines in sports.

"Rowing is one of the hardest endurance sports there is," she said. "The races last a little over six minutes and you are going full speed. You can really become aware of your body and what your body can handle. So much of it is mental, and being able to push through that mental block because your body keeps going — it is just your mind that shuts you down."

One of the things that helps is prayer. "Prayer is absolutely one of the greatest things ever," she said. "There is not a single time that I have been at the starting line when I haven't been praying my heart out like no other."

Megan Dirkmaat

She said when she had a back injury that didn't seem to heal, she received a blessing and "literally within a week (the injury) was gone. I have complete faith that it had to do with the blessing."

A lifetime member and former Sunday School teacher, she said she is respected by her teammates for her standards. "Athletes are some of the hardest working and some of hardest partying," she said, adding that her teammates know her standards and "they are all super supportive." She's enjoyed sharing teachings of the gospel with some of them.

Of the Summer Games in Athens, she said, "We are sort of favored for the gold, but anything can happen. We are going out there and race our hardest and hope for the best."

E-mail to: jhart@desnews.com