THE ERA OF POLARIZATION tidal course that rarely takes more than eighteen minutes and was, until recently, usually over in the first four minutes of racing. The fact is we were used to hard miles that put Oxford and Cambridge rowing to shame! “When I was at Navy, we rowed fifteen to twenty miles a day, every day. We did pieces at Boat Race distance, ratings and intensity three times in a single practice! “In training for the National Team, Korzeniowski’s practices were brutal, and meant to be so. We rowed 3 x 20 minute pieces at 26 to 34 strokes a minute in pairs or fours or eights with a seven minute break between them. We competed for seats on the team every stroke of the way! There was no easing off.”7486 The Telegraph: “The Americans apparently felt that they did not need to train as hard as Topolski wished. ‘These guys are the best,’ Clark reportedly told Topolski. ‘We don’t need to train. We are so good we could turn up on the day and beat Cambridge.’ “That was not the attitude of the coach and the president, traditionalists who expected loyalty, devotion to the team ethic and obedience from the entire crew. “They also felt that Clark’s arrogance was not backed up by his training performances7487.”7488 Chris Huntington: “I question the accuracy and even the sentiment of the above quote attributed to Chris Clark that Americans ‘don’t need to train.’ Chris would never have said that in any way except with utter sarcasm. And he never would have believed it. I knew him better than anyone at Oxford that year – We had 7486 Lyons, personal correspondence, 2010 7487 Indeed, it was universally acknowledged that Chris Clark in the fall of 1986 was performing well below his fitness level of the previous spring. 7488 Andrew Baker, When mutineers hit the Thames, www.telegraph.co.uk, April 6, 2007 rowed together as undergraduates at Cal Berkeley – and he is a close friend. What he objected to was manipulation and mismanagement, not hard work.”7489 Lyons: “Today, after more than twenty years, the frustrating thing is that it was never about Dan Topolski and his training methods. He’s a charming man, and that’s one of the reasons I went to Oxford. Because I liked him. “It wasn’t about him! “And the fact is that most of those cultural clashes over training were settled by the time the mutiny actually happened. We had long since agreed on what we were doing.”7490 To put things into perspective, disagreements over training had dogged the team for decades.7491 In 1986/87, confrontations over training began on the very first day the Americans arrived in the fall and continued for as long as they were part of the team. There were demands, ultimatums, refusals, boycotts and missed practices. Chris Clark often appeared to Topolski to be the point man opposing him, but Clark was consistently backed up by a unified American front with increasing support from their British teammates, who perceived that Topolski was treating the American internationals unfairly. Compromises were repeatedly demanded, negotiated and then almost immediately violated, either by Topolski or by the team. Chris Penny: “Every week something else would creep back into the schedule, until pretty soon we were back to Square One.”7492 Steve Royle, one of the Oxford assistant coaches: “Topolski was out of touch with oarsmen and their problems. They are 7489 Huntington, personal correspondence, 2010 7490 Lyons, op. cit. 7491 Gill, p. 13. See also Chapter 78. 7492 Qtd. by Kiesling, op. cit., p. 91 2089
