THE SPORT OF ROWING standing on the podium, completely crushed.”5795 It had been twenty years since Allen Rosenberg’s Vesper crew had won the last Olympic Gold in the eights for America. No one knew it at the time, but despite this close call, it would be twenty additional years before the United States would finally succeed again. FISA 1984 Video With 400 meters to go, the Canadians still had their coxswain, Brian McMahon, ahead of American bow-seat Chip Lubsen. Also visible: American 2-seat Andy Sudduth and Canadian stroke Blair Horn. 1,000, with the U.S. and the rest of the field bunched together another five seats behind. Unfortunately, the Americans had been focusing on their perceived closest rival, New Zealand.5794 Before the race, Canadian coach Neil Campbell had predicted that if they got the lead nobody would row through them. With 400 meters to go, the U.S. had moved into second, but the Canadian coxswain was still ahead of the American bow-seat. With 300 meters to go, American stroke Bruce Ibbetson began his sprint, and his boat immediately began to gobble up the Canadian lead. Eight seats, seven, six . . . In the last twenty strokes, they came in a rush. Three seats. Two seats. At the line the Canadians still led by a seat and a half. Korzeniowski: “In the sprint, we were catching them with every stroke, but we lost by tenths of seconds. You never have seen Silver Medalists with such sad faces 5794 Matlack, op. cit. For the New Zealand perspective, see Chapter 133. 1987 Jeff McLaughlin, 1987 U.S. 6-seat from Northeastern University: “Our crew was a mix of old and new: veterans Mike Teti, John Pescatore, Doug Burden and Jon Smith and newcomers to the National Team Pete Nordel, Mike Still, Ted Patton and me. “After going through the camp selection and being introduced to Kris’s ‘Natural Power Style,’ we spent the summer trying to perfect it. Kris would watch us take one stroke and stop us, take another single stroke and stop.”5796 “Korzo was big into telling me to relax. My idiosyncrasy was that my shoulders would be tensed and raised up, and he wanted them to be lowered so that I would be more connected during the stroke. At Northeastern, Buzz Congram had coached me on the same issue on the old fashioned ergs where you could actually hold the flywheel so that it wouldn’t move. He would have us put all our weight on our feet and our hands so that our butts would be off the seat. He would have us do that and then change our muscles slightly so that we could feel and appreciate the difference between having our shoulders up around our ears 5795 Matlack, op. cit. 5796 McLaughlin, personal correspondence, 2006 1608
