ALBANY — Shannon Breimer, a rising senior at Columbia High School, started rowing three years ago. In her first year on the water, she qualified for the USRowing Youth National Championship.
En route to the championship in Sarasota, Florida, Breimer remembered feeling a rush of imposter syndrome. The COVID-19 pandemic had limited the number of rowers who could make it to nationals, making it easier for Breimer to qualify.
“I remember going on the plane to Sarasota and hoping that a horrible accident would happen so that I wouldn’t have to race because I was so scared,” she said. “I was so scared of going to the start line.”
Breimer’s appearance in the championship turned out not to be a fluke.
She returned to the national championship in the last two years, making it three consecutive appearances. In her latest effort at the championship on June 11, she finished 10th out of 30 rowers as a 16-year-old competing in the under-19 field.
She also won the singles category of the Philadelphia Independence Day Regatta last year. Soon after, she attracted interest from NCAA Division I rowing programs like Princeton University and Columbia University.
When asked, Breimer credited much of her success to her relationship with her coach, Yuri Kolomiets.
“I think a large part of it was finally having someone believe in me because my coach was the first person in any sport to ever see potential in me,” she said. “I think he saw the possibilities in me so he would put me out in a single boat which is hard to propel.”
Kolomiets, the head coach of the Albany Rowing Center, has trained Breimer since she first joined the program.
“Yuri is sometimes like a grandfather to me, and he is sometimes my worst enemy,” Breimer joked.
A former coach on the Soviet Union national rowing team, Kolomiets brought a rigorous…
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