ConnectU founders score spots on U.S. Olympic rowing team

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss might not have gotten their way with Mark Zuckerberg, but they've got a different prize in mind now: Olympic glory.

Tyler Winklevoss, one-third of ConnectU's founding and one-half of the U.S. men's straight pair.

(Credit: usrowing.org)

The identical twins, who founded one-time Facebook rival ConnectU with their Harvard classmate Divya Narendra, have earned spots on the U.S. Olympic rowing team that will compete later this summer in Beijing. The team's roster was announced Friday and is currently pending approval by the United States Olympic Committee.

Recently, the Winklevoss twins have been in the news because of their long-running lawsuit against Facebook founder Zuckerberg, whom they had once hired as a programmer for ConnectU.

Since 2004, they have alleged that he stole their business plan and source code. The legal fight dragged on until a settlement was reached earlier this year. Then, however, ConnectU's lawyers challenged the agreement and claimed that Facebook had committed fraud. Earlier this week, a judge decided to enforce the settlement, which provided ConnectU with a mixture of cash and stock (effectively, an acquisition by Facebook).

It was no secret that the Winklevoss twins (or "Winklevii," as they are reportedly nicknamed) were in the running for the Beijing squad, but their spots on the roster were not guaranteed until Friday's announcement.

Fittingly, the two will be rowing together. They'll be in the men's straight pair event, which pits heats of two-person boats (each rower has one oar) against one another for the standard distance of 2000 meters.

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