Dec. 22, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senior rower Austin Roberts (Arlington, Vt./Arlington Memorial) stepped out of a Georgetown boat for the last time on November 16th, after a successful finish at the Rivanna Romp on Lake Rivanna in Charlottesville, Va. Sadly, his final race comes just months before the Georgetown men's heavyweight crew team begins its spring season, the portion of the season that all of the hard work during the fall goes toward. Still, for Roberts, there are no regrets.

"Any time you take off the uniform of the school you love for the last time, it's hard," Roberts said after the race. "It's a really bittersweet feeling when you finally get out of the boat, or off the field, after you've given it all you've had. I'm definitely going to miss rowing, but I hope to get a single shell and be one of those old guys you see out at Thompson's every morning."

Roberts will not be sitting around waiting for age to catch up to him to enjoy time at Thompson's Boat Center in his single shell, nor will taking off the Georgetown Crew uniform be his last athletic endeavor, as his post-collegiate life already promises exciting athletic opportunities.

After graduation, Roberts, who came to Georgetown on a full Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, was commissioned as an active duty field artillery Lieutenant, December 19th. He will be stationed with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York, after a stop in Fort Sill, Oklahoma for officer basic training. Roberts' duty station at nearby Fort Drum will allow him to rejoin the U.S. Skeleton National Development team in Lake Placid, N.Y. next winter. After his military training, he will begin preparing to compete for a spot on the men's National Team for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

"Initially, I was looking online at the Army Elite Athlete program, which is basically the Army's way of sponsoring athletes within the Army who are training for a spot on the US Olympic team," Roberts said. "Skeleton was one of the things on their list and they were still taking applicants for the year 2010. I went on YouTube to find a couple of videos, and thought it looked like a exciting sport, so I went with it."

Skeleton is a winter sport similar to the luge, except "sliders" sled down an ice track headfirst, at close to 80 miles per hour. Much like bobsled, athleticism and speed are prerequisites to success, which is why someone like Roberts, who boasts an athletic resume including crew, two marathons, a 54-mile ultra marathon and soccer, drew interest from the U.S. Olympic National Development Team.

"I sent them an athletic resume, got a response back, and went out for a week-long tryout with a physical testing combine and some runs down the track," Roberts said. "I was invited back after that, and spent about two months total last winter training in Lake Placid and sending work in to my professors via e-mail."

From there, he competed in the Empire State Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., a mini-Olympics for the US Eastern region. Despite it being his first competitive racing season, Roberts took gold in the U-23 Division, and was named to the U.S. National Development Team. Still a relative newcomer to the sport, Roberts will have the luxury of training alongside the nation's best.

"There are only two tracks in the US. You would have to live around either the Lake Placid, or Salt Lake City area, to grow up with it, so most of the athletes get into the sport a little later in life. You'd have a tremendous advantage if you started younger," Roberts admitted. "There were some people there where skeleton was their high school sport. Training with some of the guys on the U.S. National team, like Eric Bernotas and Caleb Smith, it's just really funny. It's like just starting to play basketball and going out to shoot around with Lebron James."

Those who have come to know Austin and his work ethic during his time on the Hilltop, do not doubt his ability to succeed. So while a shot at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is unlikely, the chance to earn a spot on the 2014 team is not out of the question, even for someone as green.

"Austin came to us as a junior very enthusiastic, very dedicated and very committed to working hard and training hard," Georgetown heavyweight crew head coach Tony Johnson said. "That attitude has allowed him to shine in skeleton and it's made him a very good teammate. His desire to do well and his willingness to do what is needed has been in the forefront for him."

Roberts is equally complimentary in what he has to say about the flexibility afforded to him by the Georgetown Crew coaching staff. "With crew, they're really encouraging," Roberts noted. "I've run two marathons, an ultra-marathon and done the skeleton program, all while working with my coaches and teammates during the season. My crew experience has been amazing. It's a great feeling at the end of the day when you know everyone's working hard year round, and really coming together as a team, whether it's training on the erg in the dead of winter, or out rowing on the Potomac, to represent Georgetown."

The transition from rowing to skeleton is a drastic one. Going from rowing, the ultimate team sport, where four to eight crew members must stay synchronized in their movement, to skeleton, where it's a slider and a sled, has been an adjustment, but Roberts is not experiencing any problems with the switch.

"Each sport has different idiosyncrasies, different high and low points to deal with," Roberts said. "Playing team sports all my life, it's been easy to transition from one to another, and I think team sports are fun and teach a lot of valuable lessons. I enjoy the camaraderie of them, but the individual sports are great for testing your own limits."

While his time on the Georgetown heavyweight men's crew team may not directly translate into success on the ice track, Roberts believes his rowing experience will be beneficial to his main career as an officer in the Army.

"I feel really lucky that I've been able to be here," Roberts said. "I wish every Army lieutenant could have rowed. I think it's one of those sports that takes a tremendous amount of discipline and instills in you a lot of team values that the Army teaches as well."