THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ROWING Official Report VIII Olympiad 1924 Olympic Eights Final Argenteuil 1 USA 6:33.4, 2 CAN, 3 ITA, 4 GBR “But the Elis were not the kind to tire easily. Lindley quickened his stroke to 38, and Yale’s lead became two lengths, then three, while Canada came near being over- hauled by Italy and England, which at last had got out of the wind. “It was Yale’s day, not America’s. On the river bank, men who graduated scores of years ago, women whose husbands and sons had been at Yale, girls whose brothers had been there, and boys whose ambition from today is to someday row in a Yale eight, yelled themselves hoarse with ‘Yale, Yale, Yale!’ “Coach Ed Leader, who has nursed this crew through patient months, had a glisten- ing look in his eye as it shot past the win- ning post, more than four lengths in front of the three next-best crews in the world. There was a stiff breeze blowing upstream, and the time the Yale oarsmen made was not as good by four seconds as that made Tues- day,1828 but the credit was greater, for they 1828 Actually, the winning American time in the final was 6:33.4, which was 42.4 seconds slower than their Olympic record time of 5:51.0 record- ed in their heat two days earlier. were not the heaviest crew in today’s race, and it was their rowing which won. “Yale’s eight stalwart sons raised the Stars and Stripes to the masthead on the Seine this afternoon by scoring a victory which proved them unquestionably the fin- est rowing eight at present in the world. All that they had done during the past year to their rivals across the Atlantic found its culmination today.”1829 This would turn out to be America’s on- ly easy Olympic victory between World War I and World War II. Postscript It took three more years for Yale Uni- versity to lose a race. Time Magazine, May 30, 1927: “Five years ago, Edward O. Leader came from the University of Washington to coach rowing at Yale. It would be mild to say that he revo- lutionized the sport in the East. He brought more men out for crew than for football. He gave Yale an unbroken record of victories, including the Olympic Championship in 1829 Yale Eight Takes the Olympic Title, The New York Times, July 18, 1924 487
