THE SPORT OF ROWING After the 1989 season, Mike Spracklen had moved to Canada to coach their men’s team,6196 but he ended up providing this one last service to Steve Redgrave. Redgrave: “I turned to Mike, whose views I obviously respected, for his advice. He had been Matthew’s coach in the World Bronze Medal Coxed-Four in 1989. “‘He’s a top guy,’ Mike said unhesitatingly. ‘I can see that being a good unit.’”6197 Author Rory Ross: “Had he seat-raced for the right to row with Redgrave, eight and a half years his senior, he might not have emerged as favourite. [Pinsent: “That’s just bonkers.”6198] Redgrave, however, with his knack for spotting potential winners, sensed something about Pinsent, while Matthew’s strength and freakish ability to work aerobically were already being cooed about among the old heavies in the Floating Stand at Henley Royal Regatta.’”6199 Martin Cross: “The two of them came together like two great stags fighting to be ‘monarch of the glen.’”6200 Matthew Pinsent: “The first outing was surreal. Steve was bending over backwards not to be imposing, and I was hanging on for dear life. His power and attack in the boat were unbelievable, and the precision with which he repeated every [stroke] was impressive. “By the end of the session I was getting cocky. ‘Let’s row ten strokes and see who pulls the other one round,’ I suggested. Steve agreed, and I got a box seat for the biggest shoulders in the business doing their stuff. “After about three strokes it was clear I was not going to win this one. The boat was 6196 See Chapter 134. 6197 Redgrave, op. cit., p. 143 6198 Pinsent, personal correspondence, 2007 6199 Qtd. by Ross, p. 32 6200 Cross, p. 205 carving around to me, and no matter what I did I couldn’t stop it. “Stunned and disappointed, I called a halt, and it was only when he turned round that I realized he was using all his strength and the rudder to move the boat in a tight semicircle. From then on the tone was set between us. We competed against one another in everything. Only when we raced did we join forces against the rest.”6201 Redgrave and Pinsent went to Canada and spent three weeks with Spracklen before traveling to Tasmania for the 1990 World Championships, where they were soundly beaten by GDR’s Jung and Kellner in their heat and then had a bad row and took third behind GDR and the Pimenov brothers, the only time Redgrave ever lost to them. Mike the Coach Redgrave: “The first time [Mike] went to Canada, Matthew and I went out there for a couple of weeks training with him. The Canadians were all out in pairs, and I remember very clearly one of the Canadian pairs said, ‘We’ve got a slight problem, Mike. We’re going to head in.’ “Mike said to them, ‘Fair enough. No problem at all.’ “And then he got out his megaphone and said, ‘For everyone who wants to be Olympic Champions, the next piece starts in two minutes. Everybody else can go in.’ “That’s Mike.”6202 Spracklen: “Our training programme is based on a gradual increase in volume and intensity over a winter culminating in very high physical output. We begin with everyone training together in small boats doing the same routines. They row at a pace and a volume which is pretty easy. When everyone can row at that pace, it is increased in small increments of volume and intensity. 6201 Pinsent, pp. 33-4 6202 Redgrave, personal conversation, 2008 1728
