INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL the story, and it gets embellished over the years. If Ted saw the Pope, then he saw the Pope. None of the rest of us did. “The Seattle paper here did a story on our Olympic crew about a year and a half ago, and that’s the first time I heard the Pope Story. The first thing I did was call Stan. I said, ‘Stan, you were down on the finish line. Do you remember seeing the Pope down there?’ “Stan asked, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ so I read him what Ted had told the paper, and he just started laughing.”3564 Nash, 2007: “The Pope Story? After forty-seven years, I guess I must finally tell how I was taken in by Australian single sculler Stuart Mackenzie.3565 It is as embarrassing as it can possibly be, and I hope you will forgive my youthful innocence. “In 1960, Stuart arrived early at Lago di Albano, training several short sessions a day and spending most of his time, both at the boat yard and at the Olympic Village, dissolving the spirit of his future opponents. “In a semi-final that summer at Lucerne, he had yelled to an opponent, ‘Hey myte, check your gate. It’s damn near out!’ As the poor victim glanced down at his lock, Sam went up four and drove away without much of an answer at all. “I knew no target was sacred to Mackenzie, but by then I had heard all his tales for more than a year, and I believed that he and I were friends. I really knew him, or so I thought. I now could call him Stu! “Just before the second workout for our four, Stuart told a bunch of us on the ramp that the archbishop of the province had been an oarsman and that if we waved when we were up the lake near the start, cardinals and 3564 Sayre, personal conversation, 2007 3565 See Chapter 86. even the Pope would wave back at us from his summer palace, Castel Gandolfo. “For days the Brits, Czechs and I dutifully watched and waved as we looped around the starting end of the lake. No one answered, yet we could swear we saw the princes of the church on the balcony – and so we persisted. “Workout upon workout I’d wave. My crew laughed at me, but Germans, Canadians and Swiss were also waving. “Stuart must have been in heaven. All was right on his race course. “Now for Mackenzie’s coup de grace! It is impossible to recount this without a blush of pure embarrassment. “Stu told us that if we medaled, the Pope and his entourage would allow us to visit him in a separate reviewing stand. “‘Only the medalists,’ he said, ‘and be sure to kiss their rings!’ “Now I’m not Roman Catholic and know very little of rituals or even how to kiss a sacred ring . . . but I was psyched! “When the great race was over and we indeed had won, I was in tears and so proud of my teammates, but there I was trying to edge away from my victorious crew and our loyal followers. “I wanted to be a part of more history! “I could see the growing line of international medalists, some from the double and some from the four, even a few medal winners from the pairs. I went up and asked if this was the proper line to visit with the Pope, and the answer from a cheerful Italian was, ‘Oh, absolutely!’ “I waited and then anxiously waited some more . . . but it was never to be! I turned out to be standing in line for gelato! “I was devastated. I turned bright red. My hero had undone me again! Was I the only one ‘Waiting for Godot?’ I hoped that my crew hadn’t actually seen what I had done. 979
