THE SPORT OF ROWING Canadians. We had heard they were quite a fast crew. “Both of them went off the line very high and stayed high. We pushed it pretty hard in the last 500 meters, and we did catch up a full length, but it was just not enough at the finish.”2654 Charlie Grimes: “What happened in the first race in Australia was that we got called for a false start. “Bob Morey, who was the most nervous guy you’d ever saw, and the most competitive, started on ‘Messieurs!’ We didn’t want to be disqualified, so naturally on the second start we started off more tentatively, fell a length behind, and could not catch them while understroking them by four or five beats. “In my opinion, all our lousy races had to do with tentativeness. We had tentative starts in every race we ever rowed.”2655 Mendenhall: “They were the first American Eight ever to lose an Olympic race.”2656 Wailes: “The press played an essential part [in the Olympic rowing] - especially a [local] writer by the name of Harold Balfe. His headline after our first round loss: ‘Australia Eight Wins Olympic Heat, We’ve Joined the Rowing Greats!’”2657 The Walk Charlton: “We were rowing out of a refurbished Quonset hut training camp left over from the U.S. Marine Corps in WW II. That night, Rathschmidt took us out in this pasture for a chat: The Repêchage The next round was scheduled for the following day but was postponed due to bad weather. On November 25, into a strong headwind, although both Italy and Great Britain jumped them at the start, Yale settled well and began to power it along at a low 32. Mendenhall: “By 700 meters, they had their bow in front, and heedless of the races ahead, built a lead up to a good two lengths at 1,500 meters against the back-breaking headwind.”2662 1 USA 7:09.9 2 ITA 7:17.4 3 GBR 7:18.1 2654 Qtd. by Greenspan, Olympiad 2655 Grimes, personal conversation, 2006 2656 Mendenhall, op. cit., pp. 21-2 2657 Wailes, p. 6 2658 Charlton, op. cit. 2659 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 22 2660 Wight, personal correspondence, 2005 2661 Esselstyn, personal conversation, 2005 2662 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 23 “‘Well, today is over, but I came over to Australia for one reason alone, and that was to take home some Gold. “‘I still think that you’re the crew to do it.’”2658 This was “a ‘Gales Ferry walk,’ nine thousand miles from the elm-lined village streets above the Thames, but intent on the same goal – to find ourselves again as a crew.”2659 Wight: “The only thing that I remember Jim saying to us after we lost that first heat was on our traditional after-dinner walk through the streets of Ballarat. He remarked, ‘Well, now you know what you have to do to win this thing.’ It was perfectly phrased to express his absolute confidence in us and to get us thinking ahead, not behind.”2660 Essy: “Jim really did something special that night in the pasture. He spoke very quietly, but when he was finished, we had put the heat behind us.”2661 730
