THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT “He had a lot of wins, and he influenced a whole generation of Aussies and New Zealanders and to some degree the British and Americans.”5615 American coach Harry Parker considered Robertson and his crews good friends: “We raced a New Zealand coxed- four [Auckland R.C., coached by Jack Stevenson. See Chapter 118.] in the petit final at Tokyo in 1964. We beat them by a little bit, and then we raced New Zealanders again in ‘67 in St. Catharines at the North American Championships, and that’s when I met Rusty and when he had that first good eight.”5616 1968 Mexico City Olympics After the success of 1967, New Zealand selectors decided that there was more than enough talent to form a men’s eight, and possibly a coxed-four as well, that could medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Six of the eventual eight put together by the selectors in 1968 had already been in place in 1967. They averaged 26 years, 6’3” 191cm 198lb. 90kg, up four years, one inch and six pounds per man from the 1964 boat. This was an experienced group. Five had begun their international rowing under Eric Craies, one in 1966 under Rolf Porter and three in 1967 under Rusty. 1968 Coxed-Four Like the 1968 Eight, the Coxed-Four would set a pattern for future Robertson crews. The four rowers had been selected from four different rowing clubs. They averaged more than 25 years of age. One man, Dudley Storey at only 5’10” 178cm, was an improbable candidate for an Olympic Gold Medal in rowing. He had started his rowing at Sacred Heart College in 5615 Nash, personal conversation, 2004 5616 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 Auckland in 1954 at the age of 14, and by Mexico City had been rowing half his life. He had rowed 7 in West End Rowing Club’s NZ Champion Eight in 1958, and he joined Jack Stevenson’s NZ Champion Auckland R.C. Coxed-Four in 1964. He won four red coats and went to the 1964 Olympics in that four. Storey also rowed 3 in Rolf Porter’s 1966 Eight that competed in Philadelphia and Bled5617 before arriving late at the Christchurch training site in 1967. The other three oarsmen in the 1968 Coxed-Four, Warren Cole, Ross Collinge and Dick Joyce, first represented New Zealand in the 1967 Australia-New Zealand Test Series under Rusty. Seventeen-year- old coxswain Simon Dickie was new to international rowing. All would continue to represent their country through the Munich Games and two of them beyond that. Two would segue to careers in team management and coaching. After winning in Mexico City, the five athletes from the 1968 Coxed-Four would later amass one additional Bronze, two Silver and two more Gold Medals in Olympic competition. Altitude Prior to the Olympics in Xochimilco, all the talk was about the 7,316 foot 2,230m altitude. Racing there would be a journey into the unknown for all crews competing. Dudley Storey: “We were getting information, particularly from the medical people, that we would be lucky if somebody didn’t die in Mexico. ‘It’s high altitude, and you better take spares,’ and all that stuff, and so the basic premise at the time was that the Four were the spares for the Eight. We were going to do the fill-in job if something actually transpired, which of course it didn’t. It was all a bit of a washover in the end. 5617 See Chapter 118. 1545
