In these blogs, I will be writing about many of my experiences as a rower and my life in Princeton, NJ. Most of all I want to share with you my journey in trying to achieve one of my greatest goals in life:Making it to the Olympics and winning a medal.
My name is Giuseppe Lanzone and I was born in a small peninsula in the capital of Peru called La Punta in 1982. I lived there till I was almost 15. Before I turned 15, I moved to McLean, Virginia.
It all started one fall afternoon in 1999, my junior year in high school. I was on my way to one of my last football practices of the season when I met Jim Mitchel. As I was passing by, Jim stopped and asked me if I wanted to row. I looked at this as a great opportunity to take on a new challenge and decided to go for it. I also figured, "why not, my dad was a rower." Next thing I knew it was snowing and I was in a boiler room in McLean high school erging at 5:45 am doing an hour of power.
Little did I know this was only the beginning of countless early mornings and hard workouts. Jim Mitchel has played an extremely important role in my rowing career. He was my high school coach and also coached me every summer throughout college until I made it to the national team. He has taught me a "few" things about life and rowing.
After finishing high school, I was recruited to attend and row at the University of Washington. UW has a great rowing tradition and a very competitive program. There I had a great rowing experience and a better time with the people I met. I learned many new things about life and rowing. Rowing for the University taught me how to have better balance between rowing a living.
When I finished college in the fall of 2005, I decided to go back to Peru and rediscover my culture. At that point, I was living in the US for 8 years with a green card. I was only able to go back to Peru for 2 weeks at most a year because of school and rowing. I felt a need to return to my roots so I decided to go back to Peru for 2 months in the winter of 2005-2006. This just happens to be the middle of the summer in South America. While I was there I rowed at my local club, surfed, sailed, hung out at the beach and spent time with family and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I was also able to visit Machu Picchu, which is absolutely incredible. I highly recommend visiting for anyone with time to go there.
After 2 months in Peru, I returned to the US and found myself thinking about rowing for the US national team. I had a few friends from high school and college rowing at this level and I wanted to know if I could do it. One of the prerequisites for rowing for the US is that one must be a US citizen, which I was not. In order to become a US citizen you must have a green card for 4 years 9 months. At that time I had my green card for 4 years 10 months. I don't exactly remember how it happened but I was invited to come to Princeton to start training with the national team. At this point, I had sent my immigration papers to INS for processing, which generally takes 1 year. Thanks to so many great people and a few letters, I was able to obtain my citizenship in less than 6 months. I swore in 2 days before, and got my passport one day before the team was leaving for Eton, England for the 2006 World Championships. That year I made the 8 and ended up placing 3rd.
Although it was a great experience, I felt third place was not good enough. We all wanted to win and thought we had the speed to do it. I have learned a lot about rowing and racing at the highest level. You cannot have a bad start because everyone has great speed.
After 2 weeks off, I returned to rowing and got right back into training. I could not wait to try to make it to the next World Championships and do better than the year before.
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