Michigan Tech Rowing Club

By Marcia Goodrich

Tim Wong insists that the lonely sport he loves doesn't come easy.

Last fall, when the 20-year-old Michigan Tech materials science senior first started single sculling, a one-man, one-boat version of competitive rowing, he struggled to achieve adequate form, let alone perfection. "My coach, Terry, said it takes miles," Wong says. So miles are what he rowed, logging hours and hours along Portage Lake. When the lake froze, he rowed inside on a rowing machine. And in May he went to New Hampshire, where rowing is as big as hockey in the U.P., to train full time at a club.

The effort paid off. Last month, he placed second in the nation in the senior lightweight division at the National Rowing Championships held in Indianapolis. Then he finished second at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta last weekend in the lightweight single and second in the 500-meter dash.

"He's a natural, a Lance Armstrong type," says Terry Smythe, a former championship rower who now coaches Wong and the rowing club at Michigan Tech. "Tim has had an awesome summer of racing."

After the nationals, Wong was somewhat less sanguine about his second-place finish. "It was disappointing that I didn't win," he admits. "That was my goal."

But considering that he'd been sculling less than a year, it was a stellar performance.

"I was a big underdog," says Wong. "In that respect, it still feels good; I've been training quite a bit, and it's nice to see my hard work paid off."

Wong came to rowing during his freshman year at Michigan Tech, intrigued less by the sport than its technology.

"As a materials scientist, I was fascinated by some of the equipment they had, like the four-meter carbon fiber oars," Wong says. "I had built a solar boat for a competition in high school, and I thought it would be fun to work on the rowing shells, which are as long as 60 feet and constructed from carbon fiber or Kevlar and Nomex honeycomb composites."

With his native talent, however, Wong was soon drafted into the Michigan Tech Rowing Club. He credits Smythe for a large chunk of his success. "She's been an amazing coach," he says. "If you want to be helped, she'll help you. She asked me to row a million meters [about 600 miles] in March, and that really got me me in shape."

Now an intern at Durham Boat Co., in Durham, N.H., Wong works on rowing equipment and practices for his next big challenge: the World Rowing Championships, set for next August in the U.K.

What's left after the world championships?

"There is a race across the Atlantic," he says. "But have to put that off till I'm done with my other racing."