Unlike many of her fellow athletes, Cecile Tucker didn't start rowing until she was already in college. Even by the time she graduated she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. Curious to see how fast she could go, she started training as a club athlete. While on the national team in the 1994 Olympics, she realized that to compete she would have to become part of the camp training system. That meant spending a lot of time in either Tennessee, Georgia, or San Diego. Despite the long periods of separation from her husband though, her time at the training camps often felt like a vacation. For athletes in training, each year of the four year Olympic cycle takes on more significance. By '96, her team was practically living together full time, an experience that proved to be difficult but also meaningful in the end. The hardest part of the training cycle for her though, was that each day was part of the selection process and right up to the end she had to earn her spot on the team.
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