THE SPORT OF ROWING “The winning time was 6:37.6. Italy’s was 6:37.8. Canada’s renowned Leander Eight finished third in 6:40.4, a bare 36 feet [11 meters] behind the barrel-chested, blue- shirted Italians, and Great Britain, in last place with a clocking of 6:40.8, was six feet [two meters] to the rear of Canada.1985 “While the victorious crew threw their scrappy, inspiring little coxswain overboard in the time-honored ducking ceremony, the game Italian oarsmen who had rowed so magnificent a race only to have the cup of victory snatched from their lips in the last few seconds, took their defeat with a sportsmanship that won the hearts of all and smiled happily in response to the crowd’s cheers as they rowed a few strokes back up the course. “They knew that they had given their best and rowed a race such as to test Ameri- ca’s all-conquering entry to the very last ounce, and they were far from down- hearted. “Italy maintained an extremely high stroke throughout the race, which is charac- teristic of its style of rowing, featured like the American, by its short back swing, choppy stroke and short slide. At no time over the 2,000 meters were the blue-shirted men lower than 39 or 40 strokes to the mi- nute, and toward the end their minimum was 42. “Canada and Great Britain, too, received a big hand from the stands. They were bea- ten, but only by the smallest of margins, and no crews that finished within less than a length of such eights as carried the colors of the United States and Italy today could pos- sibly have any cause for feeling disgraced. “It was a battle such as has been seldom equaled in American rowing, and the only Olympic race that parallels it for the bitter- ness of the struggle and the closeness of the finish was that of 1928, when the United States barely got home ahead of Great Brit- ain on the Sloten Canal in Holland.1986 “California’s own had conquered the best of the world after blazing a 3,000 mile trail of victory, from Seattle, Washington to Poughkeepsie and Lake Quinsigamond, and the shores of the lagoon, black with humani- ty, reverberated to the din of the greatest throng ever to see a boat race on the Pacific Coast.”1987 Ky Ebright’s second Olympic Gold Medal would not be his last. The remainder of his career will be covered in Chapter 57. 1986 See Chapter 54. 1987 Allison Danzig, U.S. Eight Retains Title in 1985 The photos indicate this was an exaggeration, but just barely. Olympics as 80,000 Look On, The New York Times, August 14, 1932 544
