BY PAUL CAPOBIANCO
UW Athletic Communications

MADISON, Wis. — If you had 10 years to give, the motivation, love of sport, superhuman pain tolerance and the support of friends, family and strangers, maybe you too could be an Olympic rower sitting in the Athlete Village right this very moment.

A pair of University of Wisconsin graduates used such a formula to make their way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

Maybe some genetics played a part too, with a basic propensity for fitness and physical size providing some additional building blocks.

World champion Grace Latz put in the time, and dedicated her life to the Olympic quest. She wasn't alone as her Badger teammate and three-time world champion Vicky Opitz did the same.

Latz' work paid off big when she was named earlier this summer to the U.S. women's quadruple sculls. For Opitz, her drive earned her a spot as an alternate on the team.

GETTING STARTED ON PATHS TO GREATNESS
It was 2006 when both Latz and Opitz stepped onto the UW-Madison campus as freshmen, and in the time-honored tradition of Badger rowing, they walked onto the team.

Latz, who was approached by Badger coaches during orientation, thought about it, but wasn't planning on joining. That was until she walked past the boathouse when the rowing team had open house for its novice team and decided to drop in. She began her Badger career in the novice eight, won a Big Ten title in the second varsity eight as a sophomore, then became a mainstay in the varsity eight as a junior and senior.

Opitz, who is the granddaughter of legendary Badger men's rowing coach Randy Jablonic, was also the daughter of KC and Kay Opitz, both of whom rowed at Wisconsin in the early 1980s. She had already been convinced by her parents that rowing would be a great way to meet a core group of friends when starting out in college, a path her sister, Alex, followed, and her brother, Charles, dabbled with.

She began her career in the novice eight, climbed into the second varsity four as a sophomore, then found her place in the varsity eight for her junior and senior seasons.

A pair of successful college rowers, Latz and Opitz teamed up to help the Badgers win the 2010 Big Ten Championship, and were key cogs in the team's program-best, seventh-place NCAA finish at the championships that season.

When their college careers ended, a former teammate provided some inspiration to keep their careers going.

"There was an upperclassman ahead of us, Theresa Shields, who was on the U.S. U23 team," Latz explained. "I didn't know about that team. I didn't know how one gets on the national team. Karen Rigsby was our assistant coach for a while and she was a two-time Olympian and was the first Olympian I ever met.

"I knew it all existed, but I didn't know how one reached it, and Vicky really investigated that with (Coach) Bebe (Bryans). Bebe told her, 'Hey, if you really want to do this, you should try to get Grace to come along with you,' and I did."

Latz and Opitz failed to make the U.S. Under-23 team that summer of 2010, which could have marked the end of their competitive rowing careers.

Latz, who was second-team All-Big Ten that season, and Opitz, a first-team All-American, were very good, but just not good enough at the time to represent the United States in Belarus.

Instead, that cut became an important moment for the two getting to where they are today.

"We just didn't have experience before, so I don't think either of us really thought of it as a failure, but more as a really valuable experience and thought, 'hey, it was fun to do that,'" Latz remarked. "And yes, we didn't get to make the U23 team, but we've seen how fast those people can go, and we thought if we just put the work in, we can be there, too.

"I think that was our first view at what training at this level would be like."

With the U23 experience behind them, both Latz and Opitz still had classes left at Wisconsin to finish their degree. While helping out their former teammates on the water in Madison, they helped themselves training with the men's rowing team.

"We had a blast," Opitz said. "The men's team trains incredibly hard. We knew we needed to get more fit on the erg and the men's team does a fantastic job of pushing those limits. It was great. They certainly respected us and helped us achieve new levels that we hadn't seen before."

"It was really fun because we beat some of the guys," Latz beamed. "We were put on their spreadsheets because you're constantly ranked in rowing after most workouts. We were usually in the top five for the women's side, and it was refreshing to kind of work your way up from the bottom. We knew that's where we probably would be when we transferred to the national team levels because we didn't have as much experience as the other girls I knew we were going to be training with."

With a degree in international studies and environmental studies in hand for Latz, and a degree in political science and communications for Opitz, they both found their way to Philadelphia and Vesper Boat Club on the Schuylkill River to take their rowing careers to the next level.

"Rowing has always been about the team and doing things with your teammates, so it felt very natural that both of us wanted to do that," said Opitz. "It would be really fun to do it together. It's easier to accomplish something very hard together. So I think it was just a natural fit that just happened to be two people in the same class from 2010 who wanted to do this."

THE TWO PATHS DIVERGE
It was Spring of 2011 when Latz and Opitz rowed together in their first National Selection Regatta (NSR). Then came the 2011-12 year and the 2012 London Olympics, which were out there on the horizon.

"Both of us, mostly me, didn't have enough experience or years of rowing under our belt to be competitive for the 2012 Olympic selection," Latz said. "That's why we chose to go to a team that's a club team. From there, Vicky was selected to go to the training center (in Princeton) and I wasn't exactly selected. I could come up and be seen for different tests and whatnot, but I was essentially told to learn how to scull, do a lot of meters in the single, and to work on my aerobic base. I knew I was good at sprinting, but I needed to be able to carry that power for longer."

With Opitz training at the Princeton Training Center as part of what was essentially the national team, Latz was left to her own devices back in Philadelphia. Using a single she had bought from former Badger assistant coach Amy Appleton, Latz kept her dream alive.

"I trained by myself in a single essentially for all of 2012-13 and learned a lot about myself as an athlete and what I needed to do to get better," Latz said. "I made huge gains in that year. I think I dropped over a minute on my 6K time and I think I dropped 15 seconds on my 2K."

"I was still in Philly and I had to drive up to Princeton once a week and then drive back down. I had to bring my own boat over on the top of my car. That started off one day a week on Saturdays for testing and then I was doing well enough where they would invite me to come up for Friday practices and Saturday practices. Then I would come up for two weeks at a time and train with maybe somebody in a double for NSR, but then go back to Philly by myself."

Opitz continued her full-time training at Princeton and was on track to make her first world championship team in 2013, while Latz toiled away with much more uncertainty on where her rowing career was going to take her. The time going back and forth, the cost of doing so without a steady income was aggravating for the former high school volleyball player and longtime ballet dancer.

"I think that was hard, but I think it made me much tougher," Latz said. "I had to go back to Philly and extrapolate based on what they were doing those two days a week. What do I have to do to be able to perform really well in those two days a week? That just made me faster because I had these weekly benchmarks of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to beat.

"There were times where I couldn't be included in that training center group. I was incredibly excited to see Vicky break a world record the first time she was in an eight (at that level). But it was kind of bittersweet that I couldn't also share that experience. It was kind of one of those first times we had not done the same thing."

On her own, like she was much of that year, Latz knew she wanted to row on that international stage. Her way to do that would be in her single to start and see where that would get her.

"I raced in the Holland Beker, which is in The Netherlands, by myself, and a couple of other clubs wanted me to row for them. So I rowed at the Henley Royal Regatta and I placed very well in different events. That all helped me get some more attention.

"I look back and think, wow, I was really motivated. That's a lot of work -- basically to fund myself and push myself to do really well in these events that I didn't have a ton of experience in and that I just sort of jumped into. But it was really fun along the way and I met a lot of really cool people.

"I think that whole year of being so focused on how to improve myself and being so hard on myself, really pushed me to kind of take on any challenge, and that once I was in the training center, it seemed so much easier because it was more clear."

And so then in 2013, Latz was invited to the training center full time.

A DAY IN THE LIFE
What was a typical day in the life for Latz during that year in Philadelphia?

"I would train generally with the other elites in the morning so I could get coaching," Latz explained. "My practice lasted from 6 until 9 a.m. and then I would bike home and refuel. I would watch a bunch of video or try to do some odd jobs in the middle of the day. I would go back out at around 2 or 3 p.m. by myself, because some of the other elites had full-time jobs. So I would do my harder workouts in the afternoon by myself. Those would last about the same amount of time as the mornings. Then I would come back in and I would do weights or an erg session and I would do that pretty much every day. I was doing some sort of rowing motion every single day.

"Club athletes don't tend to do a lot of erging or testing, but that is really valued at the national team level, so I really committed to doing a lot of that. Being able to push myself on the erg was incredibly helpful, because that's not usually something people willingly do."

Erging is definitely a skill picked up by rowers at Wisconsin because of the harsh winters and frozen lakes in the area during that time. It turns out the experience Latz had with erging at Wisconsin paid dividends after all.

"It didn't really shake me having to sit down on an erg like it does for others," Latz stated. "At Wisconsin, we were the indoor erg team. I definitely think that being forced, because of winter, to sit on an erg; learning that in college, set me up really well to do the work that I needed to do by myself in Philadelphia."

GET BUSY LIVING
At first glance, an expensive city like Philadelphia is not a friendly place to someone with international rowing dreams. A rower from Jackson, Michigan, needs to find a place to live, food and a way to get around, all while training six-plus hours on the water a day, dry-land training and video work. How does someone manage such a challenge?

"Once you're a part of the U.S. team, you get a very small stipend and you live with host families because your location is stable," Latz said. "I was traveling so much, and spending time in Philadelphia. The Schuylkill Navy, which is the big group of boathouses in Philadelphia, has sort of a dorm set up with reduced rent for athletes who aspire to this. I was very fortunate to be able to rent a room from what we affectionately called, 'The Monastery.'

"I did have a job in 2011-12, when Vicky and I both moved to Philadelphia, and I kept it up until I had to start going up to the training center once a week. I felt like I really needed to commit in training just as hard or longer and smarter than these other girls. I knew I was going to have to pour a lot more of my time into that.

"A lot of it was relying on my savings and also my parents, doing odd jobs, like dog sitting and housesitting, stuff like that."

For the Middleton native Opitz, she got along with the small stipend that the privately-funded National Rowing Foundation provides to national team athletes. The stipend "covers groceries and gas," but there is also the small detail of having a place to live.

"We are the only country in the world that doesn't support their athletes from the government standpoint," Opitz said. "We rely very heavily on the wonderful Princeton, New Jersey, community to help us out. I've lived with a host family since I've moved to Princeton. I could not be doing this without them. They are amazing."

TOGETHER AGAIN
When Latz was invited to the Princeton Training Center in 2013, she rejoined her former teammate Opitz, who was by that time already a world champion. Soon, Latz would be competing at the same level of competition.

"I was in this group of women, who I had seen when I was in college, training for the Olympics," Latz said. "It was really cool to have these Olympians in boats with me or next to me and call them my teammates. I definitely learned a lot from everybody."

Latz made her first national team in 2014, earning bronze in the women's quadruple sculls at the world championships. Opitz won her second gold that year in the women's eight.

Then in 2015, Latz rowed with the quad at World Cup events, but didn't make it for the world championships. For her consolation prize, she rowed in the non-Olympic event with the women's four and took home gold.

"It was a huge motivator," Latz said of not making an Olympic event in 2015. "I've just tried to do my best every day from the end of the world championships last year. Every day is about your rank and getting better and getting faster and making the whole team fast. I think it speaks volumes that three out of the four women in that non-Olympic boat class are in the Olympics this year."

Opitz, still part of the U.S. women's eight juggernaut in 2015, won her third women's eight gold, helping extend the American winning streak to 10 years in the event at world championships and Olympic competitions.

However, there were storm clouds brewing for Opitz, as far as her Olympic dreams were concerned. Two years ago, she developed a stress fracture in her ribs, something that would flare up again at an inopportune time during the lead up to the Rio Games.

GRUELING SELECTIONS AND THE DAY THE TEAM WAS NAMED
As things got down to the wire, the deep American pool of rowers made getting selected to the U.S. Olympic rowing team a battle until the end. When the time came, Latz didn't know if things would go her way.

"I honestly had no clue," Latz explained. "I think there were 28 girls fighting for the eight and the quad. The pair was already decided, so just the eight and the quad, and on the last five, six days, we had 12 girls fighting for four spots.

"I can't even begin to explain how much respect I have for all of my teammates. You go every day to practice not knowing what's going to happen, what lineup you're going to start out with or what you're going to finish with or who might get switched. I personally was just focusing on making every boat I was in go as fast as possible."

Nearly 10 years of rowing, from her first time on Lake Mendota, to Lake Wingra, the Charles River, the Schukylll, the Thames, The Netherlands, France and various other locations around the world, were all coming together as this past June progressed.

"I think I knew that if I didn't make the team, it was still an incredible opportunity to just be with these people and see how far I've grown over these last years since graduating."

Then it was the moment of truth.

"I'm standing drenched in sweat after we had done a lot of switches that morning to finalize maybe the last two spots," Latz said. "We finished the workout on the water. We brought the boats into the dock and washed them off, put away the oars and the group who was involved in the selection for the quad was just standing in front of a white board to wait for our coach to write down the lineups and the times.

"He put an asterisk by the fastest time of the day, and said, 'The lineup of the quad that posted the fastest time, this has been consistently the fastest quad, so I'm going to nominate this quad.'

"It didn't have any names up there, but I knew I was in that quad. I was just like, wow, I guess I made it."

Seems a bit anticlimactic, the way Latz explains it, but the news came right after an intense practice.

"In the moment, you're kind of thrashed and exhausted, because I just gave it my all for the last year, but also, more immediately the last 2 1/2 hours," Latz said. "I'm so excited that I get to pursue this and keep training towards this goal that I've been working towards. It's also incredibly heartbreaking, because a lot of my teammates didn't make the team, but they are also world champions. It was kind of a weird moment or bittersweet moment in a way."

In the quest for the Olympics, it takes a lot of people along the way to help someone get there. One of those people who was there along the way was Latz' mom, Virginia, who was there at the end as well, to show support.

"My mom was able to fly out for the last couple days of selections, to be here in case I needed to cry and go on some sort of distraction trip," Latz explained. "But if it was good news, then we could celebrate, and that was definitely helpful.

"She was so nervous. When I went in to go tell her, I went to her hotel. I was trying not to give any details away with my body language. So she's approaching me very cautiously, and I said, 'How does it feel to be the mother of an Olympian?!' She just started crying."

Latz followed that up by visiting her husband, Jules Zane, at his office in town. The two met in class during Latz' fifth year at Wisconsin. She also called her dad, David, to share the great news.

GETTING BACK IN THE BOAT
For Opitz, selections didn't go the same way as it did for Latz.

"It was, and still is, very hard," Opitz said. "Just how hard everyone fought, I've never seen anything like it. Everyone is extremely talented. I've never been part of a group of such strong women. It is wonderful to be a part of."

A three-time world champion in the women's eight, but not on the Olympic team.

Unfortunately, injury may have been some of the reason why.

"Part of the story, yes," Opitz stated. "Two years ago I had a stress fracture in my ribs. It kind of flared up here and there and unfortunately during the very important period of training this year, I had a stress reaction, which is a step before a fracture in the exact same spot. That took me out a few weeks during a pretty important time period. It was right before our selection regatta. It was difficult to put my best foot forward coming back from injury so quickly after that."

Despite the injury problem, Opitz was still in the running all the way through.

"She was definitely in the group who raced up until that last day," Latz said about Opitz. "She's such an incredibly talented rower that it hurts me to see her get sidelined the way she has. She's a three-time world champion in the women's eight, a boat that has not been defeated on the world stage since 2006 when I started rowing."

That wasn't completely the end for Opitz and her Olympic dreams. There was still the matter of picking the alternates for the team. There was still racing to determine those two spots for the women's team.

"I can't imagine how heartbreaking it is to officially hear you haven't made it, but still to push yourself to be the alternate in the case your teammates can't perform during the Olympics," Latz said. "She's there to keep pushing us on the erg and on the water, in doubles or in pairs, whatever she needs to do. I think that really speaks to Vicky's character and how dedicated she is to the team."

For those extra efforts, Opitz is in Rio for the Olympics, ready to row if she is called upon, along with the other alternate, Olivia Coffey.

"We basically train together," Opitz said. "We are doing everything the Olympic team is doing. We travel with the team and should anyone have an injury, or with the health concerns going on there not be able to compete, we would step in. We travel as a team. We get the swag. It is very nice to be a part of it."

SACRIFICING TO MAKE THE TEAM -- OR MAYBE NOT
Ten years of your life all towards one goal. Six hours a day of practice, not to mention all that time in the weight room, on ergometers and watching video. It is a large commitment to be so focused and to dedicate oneself to such a specific life. But does it feel that way to one going through it?

"I would say it has never really been a sacrifice," Opitz said. "I really love rowing. It is such a direct correlation between how hard you work and what you get out of it. There is just something so beautiful about taking a stroke. It sounds so cheesy, but feeling everything working together and this run of water going underneath, it is very beautiful. It looks very beautiful also, but it is nitty gritty hard work that goes into it too. It has always really appealed to me. I guess it has never really been a sacrifice because I love it."

For Latz, it wasn't necessarily a sacrifice. It was what she wanted to be doing.

"I knew it was something I needed to do to get better," Latz said about the efforts she put into her training. "Times where it's tough is when you go home and your schedule is just a little bit off because your parents are going to think you're on vacation, or when your friends don't quite understand why you wake up at 6 a.m. and you're supposed to be relaxed, or you're traveling by yourself to different regattas and you can't go and be a tourist.

"I recognize those as sacrifices, but I always kept in mind that the big picture was more important to me."

It wasn't always that way for Latz, who considered herself, "a decent college rower." While at UW, she balanced a lot of different interests, with her rowing, earning her degree and student organization involvement that included being part of Iron Cross, as well as helping start a recycling initiative in the athletic department.

"As I got to higher levels, from college to elite club rower and then from elite club rower to almost on the national team and then to on the national team to now, I felt like you have to cut out more and more until this is your true No. 1 commitment. That is what it takes," Latz analyzed.

REFLECTING ON THE JOURNEY
Now that Latz is an Olympian, she says things are still the same, but they are also different.

"It's kind of surreal," Latz explained. "Intellectually, I know that I've made the team. But we're still training in the same boathouse. I still see a lot of my teammates every day. We went to a training test in Dartmouth, which we've done for the last two or three years.

"It kind of just still sounds like this competition that people have talked about that I haven't gone to yet. I think it will hit me a little bit more when we actually land in Rio and I see the course and I get to wear my Olympic uniform. I think then it will really hit, because right now it just feels like preparing for another World Championship or a World Cup."

She also has an intellectual grasp on what it actually means to be an Olympian. It is for yourself, but also for family, for friends, for your school, your hometown and your country.

"I know that Badgers will be watching me," Latz said. "I'm from Michigan and people from the Great Lakes are going to watch me. My high school, the Mounties, are going to watch me. My teammates from Boathouse Row are going to watch me. I think that's pretty cool.

"I remember watching the Olympics in 2012 and I knew some of those girls through that U23 camp I had done. It was really cool to actually know those people. I'd sat down and had lunch with those people and had seen them on the river. It's really weird that I'm now one of those people to maybe somebody else, which is kind of neat.

Then there are the people who helped Latz get to where she is now, who were there along the way.

"I met my husband Jules when I was in college and it's really amazing that he was able to kind of jump into this journey with me and not think twice about it," Latz said.

"And for my parents, when I told them I kind of want to do the Olympics, they answered with, 'Okay, whatever you want to do, honey. We don't know how you do that, but we'll try to be supportive.'

"I'm pretty amazed at how people were so supportive of me, even though my position was pretty uncertain for most of my time. I didn't know how to train for this, so that's what failing at U23s was all about. I didn't know what I needed to work on until I get cut from being at the training center full-time.

"But then also people like Coach Clark, who was incredibly helpful in my fifth year in letting Vicky and I erg with the men's team. He's sent a lot of guys up to the national team and knew mentally what to prepare for and was just a good resource. Bebe had us train in small boats in college, which is not a very common thing to do, but that was incredibly helpful for getting to this level.

"My freshman coach at the time, Nicole Borges, I remember she was the first person who allowed me to sit in a single, because most colleges don't have singles around.

"It's pretty cool to see how people kind of help Olympians along and I don't think I really thought about it until I got here. It's cool to see how many people lend a hand to help somebody make it.

Opitz has thoughts along the same lines.

"I feel like I am kind of a part of every rowing coach that has ever taken the time to work with me to help me learn."

"I also have to give a shoutout to my teammates. I think teammates are the people that teach you the most about the sport. Everyone interprets things different and feels things differently and you rotate with everybody. You have to learn to row with everybody. You never stop learning as a result."

With the Olympic rowing competition now just days away -- Latz is scheduled to row in the heats on Saturday morning – Opitz will at worst have a front row seat to the world's greatest sports spectacle and will be part of the large group of people supporting her former teammate.

"I think it is fantastic that there is going to be a Wisconsin rower who will be in Rio representing the U.S.," Opitz said. "I think Wisconsin did a great job preparing Grace and I for the national team level.

"Grace and I have known each other for almost 10 years now. Sort of like my parents said, the people you meet in rowing are going to be your friends for life. They stick with you in the best of times, the worst of times. They see it all. I've been lucky to have found such a great friend in Grace. She's awesome. I am excited to watch her compete."

EPILOUGUE
While Latz races, and Opitz sits in the bullpen in case things go awry for one of her teammates, two other members of the Badger rowing family will also be in Rio for the Olympics.

Coxswain Kendall Schmidt, who was in the running to cox the women's eight, is there as part of the staff. She will be helping the team with their nutrition, physiological monitoring and will be serving as a jack-of-all-trades.

Schmidt recently coxed the Princeton Training Center's women's eight entry at the Royal Henley Regetta in England after the Olympic selections were completed. That boat, which included Opitz and others who fell short of the Olympic team, won and had many in the rowing world proclaiming it the second fastest eight in the world.

Also, former men's rower and assistant coach Matt Imes will be in attendance at his fourth Olympics. USRowing's High Performance Director will serve as a staff member. He went to the 2004 and 2008 games as an assistant coach, and the 2012 games as a staff member.