Golden rower has family ties in Flathead

A member of the gold-medalist Canadian Olympic men's eight rowing team spent time in the Flathead Valley as a boy and continues to visit family members here.

Jake Wetzel, 32, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is the grandson of Betty Wetzel, 92, of Bigfork, and the nephew of Hans and Gretchen von Rittberg of Bigfork. His aunt, Susan Hinman, spends summers in Rollins.

"He visits me frequently," Betty Wetzel said proudly. "He's quite a boy. I'm very proud of him."

Sunday, the day Jake Wetzel won his gold medal, would have been the 95th birthday of his late grandfather, Winston Wetzel, she added.

The Wetzel family had a cabin on Beaver Lake near Whitefish for 20 years, and Jake Wetzel spent time in the summers there, his father, Kurt Wetzel, said in a phone interview from Saskatoon.

The winning athlete has represented both the United States and Canada at the World Championships and the Olympics. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Wetzel was a member of the silver-medal-winning coxless four team for Canada.

"He's won everything," his father said, noting that his son has competed in a number of sports, including mountain biking and cross-country skiing.

It was his skill as a mountain biker that helped him develop the strength and stamina to be a rower, the elder Wetzel said. Jake was spotted by recruiters and immediately offered a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley.

"He had an unbelievable score because of his aerobic strength," his father said.

As a teenager, Wetzel was on the Canadian Junior Cycling team; he only began rowing in fall 1997 at Berkeley.

"His success was immediate and extraordinary," Wetzel's online Wikipedia entry indicated.

In 2003, after a two-year pause because of a shoulder injury caused by a mountaineering accident, Wetzel returned to the international rowing scene and joined Team Canada. He has been winning races ever since.

As the reigning world champions, Wetzel's team was seeking redemption, his father said, for a crushing defeat in Athens four years ago, when it entered as the top contender but finished fifth.

"Jake is a person who raises a boat; he makes it go faster," his father said. "He's an old warrior when it comes to this. He instills a competitive spirit.

"And he's used to winning."

After Wetzel's team won its first heat, he was quoted as saying his team would use the time between the first heat and the finals to "sharpen the saw" in order to win gold.

"It's been a long week since we had our heat, and then just such a build-up to sit around all day, and then for that five minutes - flat out. It was just an incredible experience," Wetzel said in an interview with CBC Sports

He announced his retirement from international rowing at the Beijing Olympics and will enroll in the Ph.D. program in finance at the University of British Columbia this fall.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com