THE SPORT OF ROWING taught to keep their head and shoulders moving ahead of the hands which took their bodies to an angle of about 15° at the finish. In 2002, greater emphasis was placed on finishes, and the athletes responded with more use of their bodies. Their boats moved faster as a result. There is no greater motivator than improvement, so the length of body swing increased, others copied and by the end of the winter the whole team had a longer body swing than before. “It was new group, none of whom had made the National Team prior to my arrival, and after a winter of long swinging they defeated the Germans at Henley. Six weeks later, they won the World Championship Seville. “The eight was unbeaten FISA 2003 DVD in Canada Men’s Coxless-Four 2003 World Champion, Idroscalo Stroke Barney Williams 6’4” 193cm 201lb. 91kg, 3 Jake Wetzel 6’5” 195cm 207lb. 94kg, in the three years leading up to Athens. The oarsmen were physically smaller than their opposition. There were no outstanding athletes in the crew, but they did row technically well, and they did have a strong finish.”7962 Dan Topolski: “Mike Spracklen says he 2 Tom Herschmiller 6’6” 198cm 205lb. 93kg, Bow Cameron Baerg 6’0” 182cm 198lb. 90kg didn’t teach them to row the long lie-back, but it ended up being quite helpful because it worked the finishes much harder, and when they came to race, they didn’t lie quite that far back.”7963 Steve Redgrave: “When the Canadians started rowing with this big lie-back, they came here to Henley, but the Romanians had been doing it for a long, long time before 7962 Spracklen, personal correspondence, 2010 7963 Topolski, personal conversation, 2008 Mike ever did it. It’s back to Lady Margaret, but with Mike’s sense of history and having all that sort of background, you know that he’s done it for a reason. I’ve spoken to him about this, and what was happening is that they were cutting the finishes short. “The Canadian four and eight came here and raced here, and people were saying, ‘What’s Spracklen gone and done? Oh, that looks awful!’ and then they went quite fast. “‘Perhaps there’s something in this.’ “And then people started copying it.”7964 7964 Redgrave, personal conversation, 2008 2214