THE SPORT OF ROWING “It’s not arrogance. It’s just confidence: We’re in a deficit situation. Let’s make them pay for going out so hard! “During practice, I had rowed stroke and Bryan had rowed stroke, mixing it up, but here I was racing in bow, and Dan Beery, ‘Havana Dan,’ aka ‘the Hurricane,’ was right in front of me, and Beau Hoopman was in 3. “Everybody in the other boats knew we were a bunch of clowns because we would party with them after the racing was done, and especially after 2003 at Henley in the pair, Pinsent and the other Brits knew that we were a bit goofy.”8227 Beery: “During the race, J.R. was con- stantly giving me updates and small tech- nical instructions . . . and I can honestly say I didn’t have whole lot left toward the end of the third 500. At that point I’ll never forget J.R. saying, ‘Beery, we’re going to win this [bleeper].’ J.R.: “So we’re still down a little bit of open water on Canada with 550 meters to go, but we’re close to the Brits, and Bry brings it up and both boats start to move on Canada. “We’re gaining momentum. As the three leaders reached 200 meters from the finish, Canada still had two seats on the Americans and three seats on Britain. It was then that J.R. yelled and he, Beau, Havana Dan and Bryan took off. During the entire last 500, they ended up 3.45 seconds faster than the surging Brits and a stunning 3.87 seconds faster than Can- ada, but they actually made almost all of their gains in that final 200 meters. Beery: “We started to close and then I saw Bryan turn his head and look over at the other crews. Even now, thinking about that moment gives me chills. Bryan and Beau started pounding on it, and before I knew it we went through everyone. I was absolutely amazed.”8230 J.R.: “We end up winning by a little bit of open water. “Ben Holbrook from the quad heard me make my call over to Matthew, and later he said to me, ‘It’s 300 meters to go. You’re down, you’re winding it up, and I hear you spit out a whole sentence? How . . ?’ “Well, Bryan and I could always talk. In fact, Mike used to bust our chops about it. “‘You shouldn’t talk! You should just row!’ “With 280, maybe 300 meters to go, I look across and yell over, ‘Hey Pinsent, here I come, you ₰♀♫® ♣Ω☺Җ ®!’8228 “All of a sudden the rate comes up, and we just bury the needle!”8229 8227 Read, op. cit. 8228 In his excellent memoir, A Lifetime in a Race, p. 222, Matthew Pinsent makes no men- tion of Read’s taunt. “That ability of ours is a testament to this surging rhythm. When you’re on, when you’ve got the green light, the hips swing- ing, everything shut down on the recovery, it’s like hitting pause. It’s very relaxed. Even at 44 strokes per minute, there has to 8229 Read, op. cit. 8230 Beery, op. cit. 2306
