THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR walked through the large gates, and immediately started hearing ‘U-S-A, U-S- A’. This lasted in a roar as we walked around the stadium. We passed the President of Mexico, the Olympic President and 150,000 other fans. Taking our place in the middle of the stadium, you could look around and see all of the other nations. You could see the mass of people, and you could see the rest of the U.S. Team. It was the parade of athletes, the presentation of the Olympic flags, the oath of athletes, the oath of officials, a release of balloons in the configuration of the Olympic Rings and the lighting of the torch. It was magical! “Finally, they released the doves (actually pigeons captured in local parks), another Olympic tradition, and the experienced Olympians were prepared. While they had papers or plastic to cover their heads, the rest of us got splatted by dove guano as the birds rose into the air, circled the field, aimed at us, dropped their loads and then flew into the clear blue sky. “The ceremony lasted an hour, and we marched out again in rank and height order. John, as a coxswain got in the front row with the gymnasts, and the rest of us were stuck in the back with the basketball players. The Heats “The fours-with-coxswain was first on the schedule. It was primarily a European event, and no U.S. four-with had made the final since ‘48, my birth year,4454 so although we were ‘favored’ to win a medal by Sports Illustrated, we had an uphill climb to do so. “Rowing a race at the Olympic level is difficult in the best of circumstances, but 4454 Actually it was 1952. The 1948 University of Washington Coxed-Four won the Gold Medal. See Chapter 61. The 1952 University of Washington Coxed-Four won Bronze. See Chapter 89. doing so at 7,316 feet [2,230m] of elevation is mind-numbingly hard, as was proven during the races. Several oarsmen collapsed, and their boats did not finish. Elite athletes simply blacked out. “Our heat contained four crews, but the top three would move to the semi-finals, so we just had to beat one. In our heat were New Zealand, Romania and Cuba. All of us had some form of cold, but Bill was the hardest hit and feeling pretty bad. We warmed up and got to the starting area. We were ready to row when they started the commands in French. “‘Roumanie prêt? Cuba prêt? États Unis prêt? La Nouvelle Zélande prêt? . . . “‘Êtes vous prêt? PARTEZ!’ “The start was good, and we were even after 250 meters. Then we dropped back so that after the first 500 meters we were about a boat length behind New Zealand. “The results: Heat 1: GDR Holland Soviet Union Argentina Mexico Heat 2: New Zealand Romania USA Cuba Heat 3: Italy Switzerland West Germany France 7:03.60 7:08.15 7:10.18 7:11.52 7:51.39 7:12.19 7:16.56 7:21.39 7:41.11 7:08.60 7:10.39 7:12.04 7:13.47 “We had made it to the semi-finals and would not have to row in the repêchages. We had four days to recover, and we needed it. The Repêchages Coxed-Fours Repêchage: Argentina 6:55.55 1229
