ROWING: 8 LIVE CREW

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At night, some of the Eight confess, they have anxiety dreams. Nothing so obvious as visions of gold medals around the necks of the Romanians or of losing the final by the stroke of an oar. During these tense, pre-Olympic days, what disturbs the sleep of a member of the U.S. women's eight Olympic rowing team is the idea of being late for practice--not missing it, mind you, but merely being a little late--or in some other way letting down her fellow rowers. "I had this dream that I was supposed to bring the inside of the boat to practice," says Betsy McCagg, "and I forgot it. So we sat in the boat, but there was nothing to hold the seats up, and the boat collapsed. It was like sitting in a plastic bag, because I had all the parts in my house." Teammates Annie Kakela and Mary McCagg, who is Betsy's twin sister, laugh, incredulously but nervously, at the notion.

The truth is, all the pieces the team needs to win a gold medal this summer are in place here at the Women's National Training Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee: eight experienced, mature, ferociously strong athletes; Yazmin Farooq, their coxswain, cheerleader and sometime nemesis; and Hartmut Buschbacher, their unsmiling East German coach who really does have a warm and fuzzy center in there somewhere. After taking the gold at the world championships in Tampere, Finland, last August, the Eight--Jennifer Dore, Catriona Fallon, Amy Fuller, Laurel Korholz, Monica Tranel Michini, Kakela and the McCagg twins--know in their heart that they are the ones to beat.

But sometimes it is hard to remember, watching them get ready for a practice on the Tennessee River or inhale bagels with astonishing speed during a break, that these young women are Olympians. For in their unstudied and hilarious way, they will talk, or rather riff, about nearly anything: their boyfriends or the lack thereof, the body-fat ratios of the rowers on the men's team, how the Southern Belle paddle-wheel boat will sometimes cruise by them so the tour guide can say, "Off to the right, we have the Olympic rowing team. Take a closer look, ladies and gentleman, 'cause some of them have legs as big as a man's!" They'll discuss anything, that is, but the pressure they actually feel about the Big Day, which is July 28, in Gainesville, Georgia. Still, like the Olympic rings that Amy Fuller has tattooed on her rear end, the will to win is there, if not always in plain view.

Trapped in the lull after April's Olympic trials, the Eight are going a little bonkers. Buschbacher has them on a crushing workout schedule. Seven days a week they get to the boathouse at 7 for a morning practice that lasts until around noon, with one short break. For a few hours in the afternoon the women return home to eat and sleep, then they are back by 4 for a two-hour session. When they are grounded by the weather, they use the hated ergometers, or rowing machines. Their goal at night is to make it into the double digits--that is, to stay awake until 10. "They're probably not in the best mood," Buschbacher acknowledges. "They're training all the time. Training, training, training. It gets boring."