McHENRY, Md. -- It was 13 years ago when two little boys met at a small whitewater race in Hummelstown, Pa. The name of the event -- the Penn Cup Fiddler's Elbow Slalom Race -- was practically bigger than they were.

Last week, Casey Eichfeld and Rick Powell spent five days at Adventure Sports Center International honing their skills in a two-man canoe on the facility's artificial whitewater course.

It isn't all that many miles from their hometowns in eastern Pennsylvania to this mountaintop center in western Maryland, but the two have come a long way since they were 5 and 6 and their parents took the budding paddlers to that little race.

Though still young for their sport, or any sport, Eichfeld, 18, and Powell, 19, were training with the United States Olympic whitewater slalom team at ASCI in preparation for going to Beijing for their first Summer Games.

"Other than just the excitement of it all, we're getting the experience of going against the best in the world at the Olympics," Eichfeld, of Drums, Luzerne County, said after a morning of taking several runs down a portion of the ASCI course ramped up to Class III-IV and set up with slalom gates.

Matt Taylor, executive director of the non-profit ASCI, was half of the U.S. two-man canoe team that went to the Olympics in 2000 and 2004 before retiring. That created an opening for Eichfeld and Powell, who have been training in earnest for the 2008 Games for only a couple of years.

"I'm a big fan of theirs," Taylor said. "I've worked with them in training camps and coached them informally over the years. I know their potential. They have the right chemistry."

From about the ages of 7 to 10, the two teamed in a canoe, but then reverted to racing singles -- Eichfeld in a canoe, Powell in a kayak. They grew up on the whitewater of the middle Youghiogheny River and the Lehigh River.

In 2006, they decided to go back to the two-man canoe.

"We were just doing it for fun at first, but as we got better and better, we really started thinking seriously about it," said Powell, of Parkesburg, Chester County.

The U.S. slalom team also includes Benn Fraker of Charlotte, N.C. in the single canoe, Scott Parsons of Bethesda, Md., in the single kayak and British-born Heather Corrie in the women's single kayak.

Eichfeld has never formally attended high school but is on pace to graduate later this summer through an accredited independent-study program.

Powell graduated from Chester County High after earlier attending Octorara High. He earned an associate's degree in business online.

Both hope to attend college near Charlotte, N.C., site of the national training center.

Their best international finish was seventh during the qualifying round at Augsburg, Germany, during the recent World Cup season.

"Having a top-10 finish in what is really their second year competing together is phenomenal," Taylor said.

The two-man canoe adds the extra element of teamwork.

"When you get to a certain level, the discussions during the paddling itself become shorter and shorter and then nonexistent. We just learn to read each other and know what the other one's going to do," said Eichfeld, the sternman.

"It's a little bit easier for me because I can actually see what he's doing, so I'm able to read him. It's more about him in the bow knowing how I'm going to react."

For their runs at ASCI, Eichfeld and Powell shot the slalom course, then carried their Vajda boat back to the top and started again.

Often, they stopped briefly on the way back to the start to exchange evaluations with U.S. slalom canoe coach Cathy Hearn. Adjustments are minor -- a little more or less edge here or there or a slightly different aim at the start of the course.

"Their paddling is very naturally done," Hearn said. "This means that they have the resources within themselves to solve the puzzle of the slalom courses and to execute it in competition. That's a really big thing in an athlete because it means they aren't totally dependent on a coach."

The slalom course features gates with green-striped poles that must be crossed going downstream and gates with red-striped poles that must be passed going upstream.

In competition, there are time deductions for missed or touched gates.

"If you paddle the right line, you can hit this current and it slingshots you through the course. It's a really cool feeling," Powell said.

The two will compete on the artificial course in Beijing Aug. 13 and, if they advance, Aug. 14.

"I have no idea what to think," Powell said.

"I keep hearing how amazingly overwhelming it's going to be, how many people there are going to be."

But he wouldn't trade it for anything.

"I've tried lots of different sports," Powell said. "I've quit them all just to continue paddling."