North Idaho youth beats own 1K world rowing record
Photo by MIKE SATREN Isaiah Harrison, age 14, beats his own 1 kilometer age-class world record, May 7, at AVID Crossfit in Hayden. Cheering him on are sisters, brothers, parents and friends, from left, Adison, Kristie (mom), Alyssa, Alahna, Isaac, Isaiah Schumann (friend), Elijah and Joa (dad).
COEUR d’ALENE — On Monday evening, two days before his 15th birthday, Isaiah Harrison broke his own 1K world record for his 13-14 age class, completing a clean sweep of world records for all rowing distances in that age class.
The Harrison family lives on the south side of Wolf Lodge Bay.
“I became interested in rowing when my dad got me the book, ‘The Boys in the Boat,’ by Daniel James Brown,” Isaiah said.
That book told the story of a few western Washington Depression-era backwoods boys who received University of Washington scholarships in rowing. As freshman rowers they bested their older University of Washington teams and went on to represent the United States at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. There, through sheer willpower and hard work, they overcame a bad starting position to beat Germany to win the gold medal.
Adding to Isaiah’s interest was rowing for the first time while watching Arnold Schwartzenegger in “Predator,” and the fact that his grandfather rowed competitively in the U.S. Navy during training at Farragut.
Then Isaiah used his parents’ rowing machine and worked his way up to 2000 meters.
“Then I realized, I’m pretty good at this,” he said.
So, Isaiah started rowing in the online yearly competitions and doing well in his age group. The rowing machine manufacturer, Concept2, began organizing the record-keeping and recording the results.
“He has an incredible tolerance for pain,” said Isaiah’s father, Joa.
Isaiah remarked that in every race, somewhere near the halfway point, something clicks in his mind that he can finish this, even if it hurts.
“If you want something badly enough, then hopefully you can push through the pain,” he said.
In an email to Joa, Concept2 noted a few of the people who broke many of the records over the years. Males and females had standouts in several events within their contemporary age groups, but none had captured world records in all rowing events.
That is until this year, when Isaiah broke all the world records in all events in the 13-14-year-old male class.
“I think it’s fair to say, your son is in a class by himself, holding every record at the same time,” said Dena Hirchak, Concept2 Customer Service/Web Development representative. “It’s very remarkable. If his interest in rowing continues, we can’t wait to watch his progress!”