THE SPORT OF ROWING 2004 Eight, but was there a manifestation of that pressure that you could see in the tech- nique of the crew, and it was something that had been seen before. In 1996, Mike Spracklen’s American crew went from pushing their legs flat at 80% of the stroke to 50% at the Olym- pics.8315 In 2000, Chris Ahrens, the stroke of Mike Teti’s American crews from 1997 through 2000, went from 80% to 50%.8316 In 2003, Canadian stroke Jeff Powell distributed his leg drive over the first 90% of his pullthrough.8317 In the final of the 2004 Olympics, his legs were flat at 50%! This is a sure sign of the transition from consistent Schubschlag to segmented Kern- schlag, yet another example of Rowing His- tory’s Greatest Lesson.8318 Postscript Paul Friesen, The Winnipeg Sun: “I asked Jeff Powell about his future. Would Sunday’s crushing loss in the final of the Olympic men’s eights mark the end of his international rowing career? “‘I can’t tell you that,’ Powell began. ‘I mean, what a terrible way to finish your rowing career. That’s going to be the hard- est thing. I can’t tell you now. It’s a little too soon.’ “The embarrassment of finishing fifth in a race Canada was favoured to win was still too fresh.”8319 Jeff Powell, one of the men who blamed himself personally for the loss, never again represented Canada internationally. Powell got married a couple of weeks later and moved on in his life. 8315 See Chapter 149. 8316 See Chapter 155. 8317 See Chapter 151. 8318 See Chapter 18. 8319 Paul Friesen, Powell crushed by loss, The Winnipeg Sun, August 24, 2008 Ben Rutledge, another man who went on record blaming himself personally, rowed four more years, perhaps searching for re- demption. He would row 2-seat in the 2007 and 2008 Canadian Eights, and he would be joined by four of his 2004 teammates and one man from the 2003-4 Coxless-Four. The Beijing Quadrennial With Powell and Herschmiller retiring and a couple of others taking a year off after Athens, in 2005 Canada put out a coxless- pair of former U-23 medalists, Malcolm Howard and Chris Jarvis, that came fourth, and an eight composed of senior team veter- ans that won the petit final as they began rebuilding toward Beijing in 2008. In 2006 after three more retirements, Spracklen took a coxless-four to the Worlds on Dorney Lake. They placed sixth. In ad- dition, Kevin Light teamed with Malcolm Howard to earn Bronze in the coxless-pairs. Kreek from the 2004 Eight and Wetzel from the 2004 Four returned in 2007. With them and a few more additions, Spracklen boated a four that did not do well and an eight that won. After winning in Amsterdam and Lu- cerne, the Canadian Eight came to Ober- schleißheim as the favorites for the first time since Schinias. Martin Cross: “I think Canadian row- ing has been in shell shock since that rela- tive failure in Athens, and it’s taken them such a while to recover. That’s why this eight that Mike Spracklen has brought along this year to Europe and the World Champi- onships has been so impressive.”8320 8320 Cross, FISA 2007 DVD commentary 2338
