The Men's Eight U.S. Olympic rowing team practices in Princeton, NJ, July 18, 2012, on Lake Carnegie.

The team nearly missed the London Games. It was not until late May in Lucerne, Switzerland, on the final race of qualifying, that the rowers earned a spot in the 2012 Olympics.

In rowing, every stroke must be synchronized.

Brett Newlin grimaces during a stroke. At 6'9", he's the tallest guy on the team. "Being tall helps in that you're a longer lever and you get a longer stroke," he says. "You're in the water longer, too, so you can get worn out quickly."

After winning its heat this past Saturday, the Men's Eight will compete on Wednesday in the Olympic finals against boats from Germany, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the Ukraine, and Poland.

In its storied history, the U.S. Men's Eight won every Olympic gold medal from 1920 to 1956, and then again in 1964, but then failed to get another gold medal until 2004, under coach Mike Teti, who was brought back to coach this year's team in time for the London 2012 Olympics.

The team returns its racing shell to the boat house.

Four-time national team member Will Miller heads to his first Olympics in London. His father competed in Munich on the 1972 U.S. Olympic Rowing Team. "Rowing is something I've always been around," says the Duxbury, Massachusetts, native and Northeastern University grad. "I have pictures of me sitting on an erg at the age of three."

Brett Newlin is a seven-time national team member and competed in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 on the Men's Four. He grew up in Wyoming, where, he admits, "there is no rowing," and so he didn't start the sport until after he arrived at Michigan State. He then continued rowing after he transferred to the University of Washington.

Californian Zach Vlahos is the team's coxswain. Using special technology called Cox Box, he records, tracks, and analyzes his voice commands, stroke rate, stroke count, and boat movements to optimize race plans. "I was pretty bad at baseball, and spent a lot of time on the bench," he says of playing Little League as a child in Piedmont, California. "But I got a lot of experience cheering my teammates on, so the assistant coach, who was on the Master's rowing team, pulled me aside one day and suggested I try being a coxswain."

Jake Cornelius is a three-time member of the national team and rowed for Stanford as an undergraduate and Cambridge while earning a master's degree in engineering. When he isn't rowing, he runs Milestone Academic Counseling with fellow U.S. Rowing teammate Charlie Cole. "For me it's important to work with other rowers," says the 27-year-old native of Brooktondale, NY. "One of rowing's challenges is that it's hard to get a job that will accommodate the schedule, because we'll train until 10 in the morning and then start again at 4 p.m." 

Giuseppe Lanzone competed in the Beijing Games on the Men's Four. Born in Peru, Lanzone got his start rowing in La Punta, a seaside city not far from Lima, then moved to Virginia, and eventually rowed for the University of Washington. One thing he does to improve his technique? "I go through YouTube and check out rowing videos of other people rowing and my own team rowing," he says. "There are so many videos online now that can help teach you how to row." 

A native of Maryland, David Banks was a high school track and basketball player before he started rowing at Stanford."I was a bit lighter when I walked on to the rowing porgram in college," says Banks "I gained a lot of weight, and rowing has made me little bit stronger, a little bit more disciplined, and definitely a lot fitter." This is his second time at the Olympics, having previously competed in the 2008 Beijing Games in the Men's Four.

New Jersey native Steve Kasprzyk is a three-time national team member. London 2012 is his first Olympics. "I'm looking forward to it," he said a couple of weeks ago when asked about the games. "I just look forward to racing and just kind of keeping my head down right now. You want to stay focused."

Grant James, left, and twin brother Ross are both three-time national team members and first time Olympians. Both are graduates of the University of Wisconsin, where they also rowed, and now sit in seats 2 and 3, respectively. "With our body types, we're just the same," says Grant. "You can put us together and we're both the same stroke on opposite sides of the boat, and I think that's part of the strength of being a twin in rowing."

Coach Mike Teti, himself a three-time Olympic rower, led the Men’s Eight to its first Olympic gold medal in 40 years in 2004 and a bronze in 2008. According to a recent article in 'The New Yorker,' Teti is known for a boot-camp-like coaching style (the same article referred to him as "a screamer").