THE WINDS OF CHANGE “Rathschmidt elected to use the Wendouree course for training rather than a more sheltered [and deeper] course about seventeen miles distant used by many other crews. “Yale practiced where they were to row.”2637 Trends The Olympic field in 1956 provided a good indication of the beginnings of certain international trends which would continue to the present. There was the best college crew from the United States against older, more mature club crews from Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and others, and national all-star composite crews from Japan and the Soviet Union. This would turn out to be the last Olympics not won by a composite crew national in scope.2638 There was also an evident trend toward more intensive training regimes. “The crews which did the most work were the ones to reach the final in almost every case.”2639 “The Canadians2640 had done staggering mileage, all at full pressure.”2641 “In the last six and a half months, they covered some four thousand miles in training. To do this they would get up at 4:30 AM and be on the water by 5:30, when 2637 Rowing News, December 1956, p. 5 2638 Although Philadelphia’s Vesper Boat Club, the 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist, was not an “official” program sanctioned by a national federation, its philosophy had been copied from 1960 Olympics-winner Ratzeburger Ruder- club, also a quasi-national effort by a local coach who actively recruited and attracted his country’s best athletes, regardless of regional origin or club affiliation. 2639 Australian Amateur Rowing Council, Appendix 111 2640 See Chapter 65. 2641 British Olympic Association, p. 55 2642 Porter, Rowing to Win, p. 153 2643 See Chapter 59. 2644 British Olympic Association, p. 55 they would row some eight to ten miles. In the evening they would cover another ten to twelve miles. At intervals they would include thirty mile outings. “Each outing would consist of [full- pressure rowing] in three- to five-mile stretches, the rate being about 24 during the first three months, working up to 28 to 30 during the last three. At the end of every outing, that is twice a day, they would row a flat-out 2,000 metre course.”2642 “The Australian Eight had spent the winter weight-lifting and running, with occasional long outings afloat. “The Swedes employed surprising training methods, seldom covering more than three or four miles in the boat. Most of the time was spent in calisthenics ashore – in exercises which their coach, [University of Washington-grad Gus] Eriksen,2643 formerly of Syracuse University, devised to produce maximum fitness and stamina. “Long instruction out of the boat or in pairs and maximum concentration in the boat had produced a first-class crew in a country relatively new to the rowing world.”2644 In retrospect, perhaps it was only the happenstance of a Southern Hemisphere Olympics held in November which allowed the Yale crew to even be competitive with the new generation of mature, highly-trained national composite crews they faced on Lake Wendouree. Despite Tom Charlton’s misgivings, it may have been that allowing time away from the sport after peaking at a very emotional Olympic Trials was the key. They came back refreshed and spent more than two months of concentrated training without the distraction of academic responsibilities, moving to the next level and arriving at the 1956 Games as the most 727
