THE SPORT OF ROWING comfortably in front, postponing the final decision until another day, but the Yale crew saw things differently. “Settling well at 32, a stroke or two below Australia, they ‘gutted it,’ in their phrase, until they pulled level at 500 meters and had three-quarters of a length by 1,500 meters, leading the hard way by understroking and taking possibly seven fewer strokes than the Australians during the middle 1,000, but making it up – and more – with sheer power. “The Australians then sprinted early with 500 meters to go.”2665 Cooke: “Two crews of that semi-final would go into the final. Both Australia and ourselves were so far in front of the other two crews that it was just no contest, and clearly each of us could have just about walked across the line. “With, I guess, about 300 meters to go, we were ahead of them by about a quarter- length. The Australian coxswain yelled over at our crew saying, ‘Ease off, Yanks! You’ve got it! Ease off!’ and at the same time they were taking a power-10, trying to go by us. “We cranked the stroke up. They did, too, and it was a race to the finish.”2666 Mendenhall: “Yale went to 34 and held them off. “Then a couple of half-crabs in the choppy water gave Australia another chance, but Yale would not yield the lead and won by a canvas”2667 in 6:55.1. The Soviets in third trailed the two leaders by five lengths. Cooke: “We were the youngest crew there. In the semi-final, we had to prove to ourselves that we could beat those guys. 2665 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 25 2666 Qtd. by Greenspan, Olympiad 2667 Mendenhall, op. cit. “We went all out and beat them by a deck. Some of the guys lost their cookies after the race.”2668 Mendenhall: “Both the Australian crew and their coach publicly questioned the wisdom of Yale turning that semi-final into an all-out race. The chauvinistic press, already scenting an Australian victory ahead, was even more outspoken in its criticism. “The most widely-read Melbourne columnist [Harold Balfe] picked Australia as a sure win the next day, gloatingly prophesying that the semi-final victory ‘did the U.S. crew more harm than good’ and that they would ‘pay a dear price for the win.’”2669 Balfe: “The Americans rowed themselves flat to the boards. Australia didn’t attempt anything so silly. After the race, the U.S. No. 3 man collapsed, and the bow man was sick. The race confirmed my opinion that the place nations in the final tomorrow will be Australia, Canada, USA in that order.”2670 The New Yorker: “It’s common knowledge along the Thames and Housatonic Rivers in Connecticut that Yale rowers are constantly prepared to die – or, at any rate, to invite heart strain and coma – for God, for Country, and for Yale. Only twice, however, has a Yale crew actually and officially represented the second branch of this trinity in the Olympic Games. The experience seems to be more than usually galvanizing. “To row all-out on wild, rough water seemed folly to the audience, but the Yale crew was intent on winning or dying semi- finally. 2668 Cooke, op. cit. 2669 Mendenhall, Oar, p. 25 2670 Harold Balfe, qtd. by Wailes, p. 6 732
