THE SPORT OF ROWING Igor Rudakov3491 rowed a smooth, even, concurrent pullthrough with good, erect posture, only +20° body angle forward and - 20° layback, similar, as we shall soon see, to the new Ratzeburg Style, to be discussed in Chapters 91 and 92. Mitchell: “We would not have won the Gold Medal without Harry Parker. There was an 18 mph [5.8 mps] cross-headwind blowing across the course from Lane 6 to Lane 1, and we were in Lane 2! After the coxed-fours and coxless-pairs finished pretty much in echelon, 6 to 1, Harry kept us in the boathouse and was just screaming at Thomi Keller to delay the races. Thomi said no, and Harry kept screaming. Finally Thomi called for a [20 minute pause before the singles race]. “Eventually, the wind turned. It was still 18 mph, but at least it was straight down the course when we raced. Thanks to Harry, we had our chance.”3492 Rowing News: “The final in Tokyo was a long slog into a ferocious 18-mile-per-hour cross-headwind. By the 500-meter mark, the Soviet team had built a lead of about two-thirds of a length over the Americans, with the rest of the field hard on their heels.”3493 Ferry: “After 500 meters, I looked up and saw three boats behind us and thought, ‘Hey, if that holds, that means a medal for us!’”3494 Mitchell: “And we just sat there. Neither crew [the Soviets and Americans] moved a foot for 1,100 meters.”3495 3491 the same man who coached and coxed the Lithuanian Pair and the Soviet Four in 1960. 3492 Mitchell, Rowing History Forum, Mystic, CT, 2010 3493 Jeff Moag, Rowers Cross Over, Rowing News, September, 2005, p. 52 3494 Ferry, op. cit. 3495 Qtd. by Moag, op. cit. Ferry: “We rowed 33 strokes a minute into a substantial headwind, and at the 1,000 meter mark where it was a bit calmer, we took it up to 34. “I thought, ‘The Old Man still wants to win.’”3496 Mitchell: “Then with 400 meters to go, Conn said, in the same voice I’m using now, ‘Well Ed, you wanna do it now?’ “Ed said, ‘Okay,’ and we brought it up to a 36 and went right through the Soviets.”3497 Joe Amlong: “It is my opinion that the Russians were much slowed down by the extremely wide shovel blades3498 (10¼” across) which they used into the headwind. Conn used regular Pocock oars and boat.”3499 Ferry: “At about 1,700 meters, Mitch said, ‘You are ahead.’ “I thought, ‘Unbelievable! Maybe we don’t have to sprint!’ “From then on, I was watching the Dutch and French in the wind-protected lanes to be sure to stay ahead of them.”3500 Findlay: “My guess is we were rowing at 34, and from all our practice in the last 500, we decided not to speed up for the last twenty or thirty strokes. To avoid a mistake, no sprint. Kent could call strokes to go within half a stroke. He was and still is that good.3501”3502 The late U.S. surge seemed to demoralize the Soviet crew. Safronov in particular lost all his posture and swing as he 3496 Ferry, op. cit. 3497 Moag, op. cit. 3498 See Chapter 79. 3499 Joseph Amlong, Olympic Report, Rowing News December 1964, p. 2, 10 3500 Ferry, op. cit. 3501 Mitchell: “After that story of the weeks after the Lake Merritt race in 1962, you know why Conn thinks I’m pretty good at estimating strokes to go!” – personal correspondence, 2009 3502 Findlay, op. cit. 960
