THE SPORT OF ROWING At the 250, Karppinen jumped to 37 and motored through to win his third consecutive Olympic Gold Medal, tying the record of the great Soviet sculler, Vyachislav Ivanov, between 1956 and ‘64.7376 Ted Nash: “John had exceptional determination. Injury can hold us from our top end. John showed his top gear always. Had he any less guts, he couldn’t have taken that fourth place in the Games.”7377 A healthy John Biglow probably would have had the speed to easily outpace every other competitor in 1984 with the sole exceptions of winner Pertti Karppinen and Silver Medalist Peter-Michael Kolbe, the dominant scullers of their era.7378 In fact, Biglow’s time over the last 500 of the final matched Karppinen’s! John’s major regret? Biglow: “I’m sure that Tiff would have won the Bronze.”7379 Biglow’s Technique at Casitas John Biglow began our Homeric saga as Paris, the prince of Troy who stole Helen and provoked the Trojan War. He will end it as the other Trojan prince, Hector. Noble and serious, he would have been king . . . but he was doomed to fall in battle. Film from Lake Casitas records the final chapter of a descent into the underworld for John Biglow. As in Lucerne, John was shooting his tail. Watching the motion of Biglow’s bow ball was instructive. Most of the singles participants rowed in Swiss Stämpfli or West German Empacher hulls which tended to maintain an even level as they proceeded through the water in response to Schubschlag force application. By contrast, the bow ball on Biglow’s American Van 7376 See Chapter 86. 7377 Nash, personal correspondence, 2009 7378 See Chapter 125. 7379 Biglow, op. cit. Dusen shell tended to rise and fall twice each pullthrough as it responded to his two distinct Kernschlag force inputs. Having re-adopted by this time Parker’s Stop & Shop recovery rhythm, probably while stroke of the 1983 U.S. Quad,7380 Biglow accelerated into the stern on his slide, and even though he was not intending to explode with his weak-feeling legs, Biglow’s bow would rise at the rush of weight into the stern followed by the initial shock of his leg motion at the entry. Then it would react a second time to the remainder of his stroke. This is a classic two-part pullthrough, considered by George Pocock and his followers, including Frank Cunningham, as the cardinal sin in sculling. After the initial leg pulse (“impact instead of picking up the boat”7381), the pullthrough resumed its pattern of strong, effective, near-parabolic surge to the finish7382 that Biglow had used since 1981. Greg Rokosh, CBC television commentator at Lake Casitas: “You can see Biglow’s rough style, his rough application of pressure on the oar. He’s got to get much smoother if he is going to catch [the medal contenders].”7383 Biglow: “I didn’t know that I was shooting my tail, but now that I am looking at these pictures, I am actually remembering more of what it felt like in that race. I can’t explain why this would happen, but my legs felt weak, and therefore I didn’t feel like I was anchored in a way that I could pry with my back. “I was doing what I could in ‘84 after making my back worse with the two-a-days. I was not thinking about style. “I cannot explain this. I’m looking at They are amazing! the pictures. 7380 See Chapter 140. 7381 Cunningham, personal correspondence, 2008 7382 See Chapter 139. 7383 Rokosh, commentary during the 1984 Olympic semi-final. I 2058
