THE WORLD COMES FULL CIRCLE 2004 Bryan: “We had these two fast fours in the spring of 2004, and we were searching for a stroke and not really clicking as an eight. Mike was trying to figure out how to put it all together, and I think it sort of came up out of the blue, switching to starboard rig, and asking me if I would do it. “I said, ‘Yeah,’ and then after that one practice, it was really good, and we just sat down on a bench, and he said, ‘I’ve just got to know if this is what you want to do,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I want to do it.’”8214 Teti: “The guys were so ridiculously fast in 2004. I’ve had three other eights win Gold Medals, and the times that these guys rowed were completely in a new zone. They were off the charts. “The very first day we put them togeth- er, we paddled for six miles, and then the next morning we did a time trial. In flat wa- ter at 35-36, they rowed a 3:58 1,500, fol- lowed by 4:00, 4:00, and that was it. “From that point on, I didn’t try to make them better. At 30, those guys were rowing 5:30, 5:32 2,000s. In a three mile piece, they were doing 1:25 500s at a 28. Even when they paddled, the spacing they got without much effort was phenomenal. “I never changed the rig. I never changed the boat. I never changed a seat. I never changed squat from that point on! It just became management.”8215 Lucerne, 2004 In fact, training in coxless-fours contin- ued throughout the rest of the spring of 2004, culminating in June on the Rotsee in Lucerne at the last World Cup regatta before Athens. Dan Beery: “Basically, we had been do- ing a lot of internal scrimmaging in the pairs 8214 Volpenhein, op. cit. 8215 Teti, op. cit., 2004 Jason Read Looking over the stakeboat boy’s feet at the start in Lucerne. and fours leading up to final selection.8216 There were several matrices that were set up to select an Olympic eight and four. We had three or even four coxless-four lineups that could win on any given day, depending on conditions and the types of pieces we were doing. The entire process was really in- tense.”8217 Gradually, the combination of J.R. in bow, Beery in 2, Hoopman in 3 and Volp in stroke rose to the top. Beery: “Finally, our lineup emerged as the one that was winning the majority of the pieces. I would guess that if we did ten pieces, our lineup might win six or seven of them, so it wasn’t as if our lineup was dra- 8216 There are echoes here of the training of the 1964 Vesper Eight. See Chapter 107. 8217 Beery, op. cit. 2303
