The rowers brace their bodies against the hull of the shell, muscles tensed in anticipation. Some pray. Others breathe methodically. All are forced to wait, those excruciating moments between lining up and the starting gun that seem to drag on for hours. This is the pinnacle of their sport. This is fast water. This is Nathan Benderson Park. In a world where sporting venues such as Madison Square Garden and Augusta National Golf Club have become legends unto themselves, Nathan Benderson Park is quickly establishing itself as one such location. The rowers at the start line of the 400-acre lake have come from far and wide to take part in the 30th iteration of the US Rowing Youth National Championships, held for the eighth time at Nathan Benderson Park from June 12-15. In total, nearly 10,000 athletes, coaches and spectators flocked to Sarasota for the regatta. The park, with its perfectly flat lake, is similar to that of an Olympic-sized swimming pool or Talladega Superspeedway—the conditions and dimensions make it one of the “fastest” courses in the country.  “It’s set up specifically for rowing, the course is a perfect rectangle and exactly 2,000 meters long, which is the traditional distance for championship racing,” says Rick Brown, director of operations and development for Sarasota Crew. “In the rowing world, we want the water to be as flat as possible—having it be that exact length is beneficial for us, because there’s less of a chance for wind and waves to build up—in addition to it not having any flow as well. In some courses, you’ll have one lane that’s known as being faster than the rest, but here all 10 lanes are equal.” It is here at Nathan Benderson Park, where future Olympians can be found and destinies are created. Including Sarasota Crew, which sent 87 rowers across 13 boats, over 200 clubs from across the country competed in the Youth National Championships. “You have to finish in the top four in your regional championship to qualify for the National Championships,” says Brown. “The categories are essentially U16, U17 and U19. We have boats in all of those categories and the sizes of the boats vary from single person boats all the way to up to eight rowers.” For athletes such as Sarasota Crew’s Reese Franqueiro and Claire Steiner, the event was the last time they would race for their home club. Franqueiro and Steiner are both high school seniors, set to row at Emory-Riddle University and Stanford University, respectively, in the fall. “We get to have one final ride down the course,” says Steiner, after the boat’s qualifying time trial. “Youth Nationals is the place to be for rowing—the energy is high and we’re all feeding off of it and are excited to race one last time together.” The boat didn’t win a national championship—that honor belonged to Sarasota Crew’s U16 Women’s Eight—but it did finish sixth in the A final, which is no small feat for a boat that had only begun rowing together a couple of months prior. “It’s a little bit sad and bittersweet at the same time,” says Franqueiro, who sat in the third seat. “I’m super excited to go down the course, it’s a really fun boat to row, but it is going to be sad leaving this behind.”