THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING Boyce Budd, who also arrived in 1963: “Dietrich and Allen certainly made an odd couple: the former Hitler Youth and the little Jewish boy.”4984 Teammate Bill Stowe: “[Dietrich] was quickly elected by his peers to be Vesper captain, and he introduced a strenuous off- the-water weightlifting and conditioning program. Also, he reinforced and added to Allen Rosenberg’s thoughts on training and rigging.”4985 Rose: “‘I was impressed at how strong the American oarsmen were, much stronger than their German counterparts. Once Vesper learned the training routine and did the weight lifting, the oarsmen naturally surpassed what was being done in Ratzeburg.’”4986 Rosenberg: “In addition to Rose’s help in the weight lifting, I relied on a Philadelphia Olympian, Dave Mayor, who worked for York Bar Bell. “Dietrich Rose’s appearance at Vesper was a great help in the rigging and physical conditioning but not in the coaching. In fact, at the outset he was merely a rower, usually winding up in the bow of straight- fours, since he could steer superbly, and in the eights as stroke, where his vastly different style was less disruptive to what I was teaching. He rowed the Ratzeburg style, and no one else did.”4987 Lehman: “It is impossible to give Al too much credit for the Olympic Gold. His genius was in providing unobtrusive but firm leadership, mediating the constant disputes, and gradually earning the respect of all of the team. I don’t know of another individual who could have done it. He was a master psychologist. “Kel, of course, provided the overall authority figure, especially after sacking Tibor, but he operated well above the fray. “Dietrich Rose’s role was also very important in conflict resolution. As important was his constant energy and optimism, and he gained real credibility in teaching what really worked from the Ratzeburg system.”4988 According to Harry Parker, “What Rosenberg taught at Vesper before 1964 was vintage Adam, because Dietrich Rose brought it over from Ratzeburg. He was a Ratzeburg rower, but what Rosenberg did, and this has happened a couple of times, if you take people who row one way that’s pretty sound, like he had Boyce Budd and Emory Clark from Yale and Bill Stowe and John Abele [in the 1965 crew] from Cornell, and they had really strong back usage, and then you adapt it a little bit with Ratzeburg, what happens is you get a hybrid, which is the higher cadence and the different rhythm of the Ratzeburg crew, but you’ve got the sound fundamentals of the stronger back motion that U.S. rowing had.”4989 Parker is suggesting that by combining the American and German strains, the American Eight in Tokyo displayed hybrid vigor. Allen Rosenberg completely disagrees. Rosenberg: “To listen to Parker, putting together a boat is like making a cake. Take a little here and a little there and voila, you have a World Champion. Back usage is not an ingredient. Sound rhythm of Ratzeburg? My foot! My approach is so totally different that it cannot be dusted off with a flick of the pen.”4990 “Of course the assertion that my style was a hybrid of Ratzeburg is totally false. I never spoke to Adam or read of his work 4984 Budd, op. cit. 4985 Stowe, p. 37 4986 Ibid. 4987 Rosenberg, op. cit., 2007 4988 Lehman, op. cit. 4989 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 4990 Rosenberg, op. cit. 1387
