kept pushing and kept pushing and kept pushing.”8030 THE ERA OF POLARIZATION terrible! The race was textbook, a quarter length at 500, half at the 1,000, three-quarters at 1,500 and hold off Romania, who closed to two-thirds of a length by the finish line, all in dreadful cross-headwind conditions. After five years, Buschbacher’s U.S. program had reached the top of the international heap, but already there were cracks in the foundation. The World Champion Four Shortly after the 1994 World Championships, the International Olympic Committee decided to drop the women’s coxless-fours event from the Olympic program in favor of the women’s lightweight doubles. This completely changed the priorities for Hartmut’s 1995 team. No longer would the top four athletes compete in the four and then jump into the eight. The eight became the sole priority boat, and the four and pair would be athletes who had failed to make the eight. Curiously, in ‘95 the smoothest American rowing by far was being done by athletes in the four who had not performed well enough in testing and in Buschbacher’s eyes to make the eight. The 1995 U.S. Four echoed the loping rhythm of the ‘94 U.S. Four. In addition, they had a long, sweeping upper body arc, similar to that used by Kucharski and Sycz.8031 Lianne Nelson, member of the 1995 U.S. Four, a product of Lakeside School and Green Lake Crew in Seattle and a 1995 graduate of Princeton: “I was this college undergraduate who had never trained full- time, who was doing well but whose erg was 8030 Kakela, op. cit. 8031 See Chapters 134 and 146. I think Hartmut was really conflicted.”8032 Kakela: “Katie Scanlon was stroking the boat, and she had been in the eight in ‘93 and ‘94, but she’s a very adaptable rower. We all had spent quite a bit of time in pairs and stuff like that, and Katie and the others had the ability to blend with anybody. Lianne has a very long, smooth stroke, very different from the eight, so bringing in Lianne, who had a very different rhythm, would have dramatically changed that boat.”8033 Technique The 1995 U.S. Eight had finally won their World Championship on Lake Kaukajärvi in Tampere, Finland, but their technique had continued to recede from the Jen Dore ideal in the year of training since Indianapolis. Into a strong headwind, for the first time at least three members of the crew were clearly exploding the front half of the pullthrough. Video of the race shows that Dore and Fuller in the stern-pair of the 1995 Eight were swinging well, especially before the water got really rough in the middle of the course. But note the discrepancies in leg drive behind them, especially in Frame 3 on the following page. Definitely rowing explosive Kernschlag, Kakela in bow, Korholz in 3 and Betsy McCagg in 5 drove their legs down by 60% of the pullthrough. The legs of Mary McCagg in 2 were down by 70%, Tranel-Michini in 4 and Fallon in 6 by 80%, Fuller in 7 by 90% and Dore in stroke by the time she began her ferryman’s finish. Kakela: “Concerning ‘95, I do know that our technique probably looked very 8032 Nelson, personal conversation, 2005 8033 Kakela, op. cit. 2239