THE SPORT OF ROWING FISA 1988 Video Great Britain Men’s Coxless-Pair 1988 Olympic Champion Bow Andy Holmes, Stroke Steve Redgrave +5°, +15° to -20°, 0-9, 0-9, 0-10 Classical Technique Hybrid-concurrent Schubschlag, ferryman’s finish. pair together, and won in that and the coxed- four.”6175 Cross: “It was well known that neither [Andy] nor Steve were particularly close.”6176 Christopher Dodd: “The relationship between Holmes and Redgrave was portrayed by sections of the media as bad, but in reality it was a perfect match in the boat and a retreat to different worlds on the bank, where Holmes went home to wife Pam and a young family and Redgrave to the bosom of his parents and the life of a single- minded singleton. They trained at Hammersmith in winter and Molesey in summer, equidistant from their homes. ‘We had one punch up, a tangle of over the ball in five-a-side soccer.’”6177 Redgrave: “Mike Spracklen was able to see potential in people when nobody else could. 6175 Sir Steve Redgrave pays tribute to Olympic partner Andy Holmes, who has died aged 51, www.telegraph.co.uk, October 25, 2010 6176 Cross, p. 145 6177 Dodd, Andy Holmes appreciation, RowingVoice, 2011 “Andy Holmes. Nobody would want to row with Andy Holmes. He was a bit of a waster in some ways, and never committed. Mike got his hands on him and turned him into an Olympic Gold Medalist. And everyone said, ‘Oh, Andy Holmes! What a fantastic athlete!’ but he was made by Mike Spracklen . . . “The way that I am has also been made by Mike Spracklen in some ways. Without him, my visions on life would be very different.”6178 At the first international regatta of the year at Mannheim, Redgrave and Holmes beat the 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1985 World and Olympic Champion Abbagnale brothers6179 by nine seconds. The two Spracklen pairs combined into a coxed-four to win at the Nottingham International, and separated again to win both pairs events at Lucerne, Redgrave and Holmes beating the Abbagnales again, this time by six seconds, and setting a world record that would stand for eight years. 6178 Redgrave, personal conversation, 2008 6179 See Chapter 145. 1724
