THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT coxless-four exceptionally well. He called us up at 600 meters to go, and Pat responded. “The rate came up, and I saw that we easily moved ahead of Slovenia, who had spent themselves too early.”6551 Tomkins: “With 500 metres to go we were a length in front, and we maintained it with 250 to go.”6552 McLaughlin: “We were quickly Ted Nash Collection even rowing hard. I felt exactly the same, and I even had time to think about Bridget, my girlfriend, for a split second.6548 The Americans lost the Gold in the next 500 meters. By the 1,250, the Aussies had pulled a length past both the Americans and Slovenians. McLaughlin: “I was in charge of watching the crews and calling our moves according to our race plan. In the final, we saw the Aussies slip out in the middle of the race and tried to respond to keep them closer, but then realized the Slovenians were ahead as well.”6549 Tomkins: “We knew the Americans would go at 1,000 metres. The plan was to hold them for 250 metres and then go for it at 1,250. “Mike kept saying, hold it, hold it, hold it. We were just waiting to unleash it. “Then we saw the marker and Mike said, right, let’s go, Gold Medal time. ”6550 McLaughlin: “Tom Bohrer was without a doubt one of the strongest rowers in the world at that time, and he knows the 6548 Qtd. by Yallop, p. 123 6549 McLaughlin, personal correspondence, 2006 6550 Qtd. by Yallop, p. 123 moving back on the Aussies every stroke and continued to increase the stroke as we started to run out of race course. With all our effort being put into each stroke, and Tom calling us ‘Up!’ we could only move back so far before we heard the first and then second place air horn blasts as we crossed a little over a second behind the Oarsome Foursome.”6553 Both Australia and the U.S. broke the existing world record in the Olympic final. Tomkins: “The Americans came up to us afterwards and said they’d known we were back to our best after seeing us in the heats. They felt they’d had their best row, too.”6554 This made four Silver Medals in five years for Ted Nash and his Penn A.C. Coxless-Fours. Add in the 1986 Gold and two other Bronze Medals, and this was and remains the most impressive international run of success in American rowing history. Only Frank Muller’s Olympic scullers of the 1920s and the crews associated with Lake Washington (with Ted Nash on board) in the 1950s and ‘60s can possibly compare. And Ted was not finished. 1993 In 1993, Penn A.C. again was dropped as a National Training Center and lost its 6551 McLaughlin, op. cit. 6552 Qtd. by Yallop, p. 123 6553 McLaughlin, op. cit. 6554 Yallop p. 123 1813
