INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL Spero brought to his sculling a fitness base earned through long low-stroke steady- state rows at Cornell University under Stork Sanford. For more than four decades, such a training regime had been the key to success for American collegiate eights in the Olympics. To this base Spero added interval training sessions, six 500 meter pieces with three to four minutes rest in between, an innovation of West German coach Karl Adam, to be discussed in Chapter 92. Together, the medium intensity base and the high intensity intervals gave Spero the tools he needed to successfully compete with international scullers of his era. As we shall see, most of his races followed a specific pattern. He would start marginally behind the leaders, push through at some point during the middle section, the opponents would eventually crack, and that would end the race for all practical purposes, whether that point came 50 meters or 750 meters from the finish line. 1964 Olympic Trials The New York Times: “Don Spero of the New York Athletic Club [will go to the Olympics] as the American representative in the single sculls. The 24-year-old Columbia graduate student in physics, a former Cornell Varsity oarsman, defeated Seymour Cromwell 3rd of the New Rochelle Rowing Club,3810 winner last week of the Diamond Sculls at Henley, England, by a little more than two lengths in 7:18.2. “The 30-year-old Cromwell, a naval architect, offered a close fight to Spero at the start and had a slight lead until Spero made his bid at 500 meters. Once in front, Spero was never overtaken, and at a low stroke that went as far down as 27, he widened his lead and finished at 29½. 3810 right next to NYAC. “The race in the six-boat final was almost exclusively between these two until near the end when James Storm of the San Diego Rowing Club came on furiously at 37½ and closed fast. Storm took third, less than a length behind Cromwell, a former Princeton oarsman.”3811 The summer of 1964 offered two opportunities for American rowers and scullers to race internationally, the European Championships on the Bosbaan in Amsterdam in early August, and the Olympics in Tokyo in mid-October. Still new to sculling, Spero decided to compete in both. 1964 European Championships Spero: “Sy said to me, ‘You’re going to be racing Ivanov. What you have to know about Ivanov is that he can sprint by everybody in the world. That’s how he wins his races. If you have a length on him with 500 meters to go, he’ll beat you by a length. It always happens. It happened to me. It’s happened to everyone he’s raced.’ “And . . . that’s what happened.”3812 Associated Press: “Vyacheslav Ivanov, Olympic Champion in 1956 and 1960, won the single sculls title in the European Rowing Championships today. “Moving up from third place in the last 500 meters, the 27-year-old Ivanov passed Robert Groen3813 of the Netherlands and Don Spero of New York Athletic Club and won easily in 7 minutes 5.19 seconds. 3811 Allison Danzig, Vesper Triumphs in Rowing Trials, Spero Also Scores, The New York Times, July 12, 1964 3812 Qtd. by Laura Spero, op. cit. 3813 See Chapter 80. 1049
