THE SPORT OF ROWING In the 1968 Olympic final, the Swiss really jumped the start, followed by the Dutch and then the rest of the field. The U.S. was last off the line, nearly half a length down by the end of the second stroke. Hough: “We had a good race, a typical Hough/Johnson race. We had a good first 500, and the last three 500s were probably dead even with each other. We moved on everybody in the middle 1,000. “We were in Lane 4, and DRSV TSC Berlin Men’s Coxless-Pair 1968 Olympic Champion, Xochimilco Stroke Heinz-Jürgen Bothe 6’5” 195cm 201lb. 91kg, Bow Jörg Lucke 6’4” 193cm 201lb. 91kg we were really focused on Austria in Lane 5 and the Dutch in Lane 3. The East Germans were in Lane 1, pretty much out of visual sight.”5128 Heading towards the 1,000, the Austrians in Lane 5 led narrowly over the GDR crew in Lane 1 with the Danes in Lane 2 a third of a length, the Americans half a length and the Dutch a full length adrift. All were rowing between 30 and 32. Rowing News: “Although slow off the start, [the Americans] were fourth at the halfway mark, and moved into the lead at the 1,500-meter mark.”5129 Hough: “With about 250 to go, the Dutch literally collapsed and didn’t finish the race, and I think there were probably two or three strokes where, with a big sigh of relief and comfortably ahead of the Austrians, I said, ‘My God, we won the Gold Medal!’ That might have made the difference. “And then Tony said, ‘The East Germans are in Lane 1.’ 5128 Hough, op. cit. 5129 Xavier Macia, The Continuing Legacy of East Germany’s Rowing Machine, Rowing News, October 2005, p. 48 5130 Hough, op. cit. 5131 Macia, op. cit. Rowing News: “The American Pair poured it on and had open water with 150 meters to go. Somehow, in the last strokes of the race, the pair of Jörg Lucke and Heinz Jürgen Bothe [from TSC Berlin] of the German Democratic Republic put on a desperate sprint. “In the rarified high-altitude air of Mexico City, it took remarkable effort. Lucke and Bothe’s finishing kick closed the open water with the Americans and then some. With ten meters to go the two boats were even, but the East Germans had the momentum. At the finish line they nipped the Americans by 0.15 seconds.”5131 This version is probably inaccurate. It is more likely that the two boats were very close during the entire second 1,000. Hough: “We sprinted and pretty much went stroke for stroke, and it may have been just the situation of whose oar was at the “I hadn’t paid any attention to them. I’ve been told since that they were sort of even with us all the way down the course. Didn’t know it.”5130 1420