A Tough Row
Fraser’s granddaughter on championship team
Rowing teaches teamwork better than almost any other sport. You can’t win unless you move together.
Kate MacKenzie knows all about winning.
The granddaughter of former UAW President Doug Fraser and his wife Winnie, MacKenzie and the U.S. women’s eight boat rowing team won the 2002 FISA World Rowing Championships held in Seville, Spain — their first world championship since 1995. They finished the 2,000-meter race in 6 minutes 4.25 seconds, edging defending champion Australia.
“We came off the line pretty hard and we just never let up,” said MacKenzie, a Michigan native who lives in Princeton, N.J. She trains six days a week from 6:30 to 9 a.m., then works till 5 p.m. and starts a second workout at 5:30 p.m.
“It’s lots of work. We basically tear our bodies down so that we feel great the day of the race,” she said.
As a teen-ager, MacKenzie was a counselor at the Walter
and May Reuther UAW Family Education Center. In 1998, she
received her bachelor’s degree in from the University
of Michigan in biopsychology and cognitive science.
While at U-M, she answered an ad looking for “tall
athletes to come and try out for rowing team.”
She did so well her coach encouraged her to try out for the national rowing team. She missed it by one spot in 2000 and was an alternate in 2001, but couldn’t participate because of illness.
The team will compete in the 2003 world championships in Milan, Italy, but members are focused on the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
“To be able to represent the United States — that’s just amazing. It’s the only thing left: an Olympic gold medal,” MacKenzie said.
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