Results have been posted from the third World Cup in Augsburg. By placing ninth, Casey Eichfeld and Rickey Powell have qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing, China next month. Scott Parsons, by placing third, secured his spot on the Olympic Team as well. C1 and K1W semi-finals and finals will be contested tomorrow.

All the USA C1's made finals. This includes Benn Fraker, Jeff Larimer and Tad Dennis. Since none of the three scored points in Brazil last year, they are all separated by one point. Thus, it is truly wide open for the Olympic slot, to be determined in the finals tomorrow. For the K1W, Heather Corrie and Caroline Queen both made finals. Similar to the men, it comes down to this race for the women as well.

As Cathy Hearn said in an email this morning, "big excitement, stress." Yes Cathy, it most definitely is. However, this is an outstanding position to be in, one the USA has not seen for quite some time. Qualifying three men in K1, two women in K1W, three in C1, and one in C2, this is a decent representation in a major world competition.

The question I pose is, where is the next hungry generation of athletes behind these athletes? These athletes, they are quite talented and are performing well, but where is the next level? Where is the depth in this country going to come from for the next four to eight years. Depth serves to not only provide the future Olympians, but an overall higher caliber of athelte across the field pushes the top athletes to reach even higher levels.