THE SPORT OF ROWING Belden and Klecatsky Klecatsky: “I raced Bill for the first time in 1968 during one of the Schuylkill Navy match race regattas. It was the best and worst kind of race for scullers, a ‘rat race,’ stroke for stroke, no letting up. Bill became my nemesis. I won that first race in my hardest row of the year. “The Navy had stationed me in New York, and I was rowing for NYAC. Every day I had thoughts of Bill down on the Schuylkill River, what he was doing, what I needed to do. Workouts with others or races with others were ‘days off’ for me. I worked hardest with myself, i.e., against Belden in abstraction. “Our personal interactions were few. I knew by sight his car, his boat, his wife, his family. I knew he could see the same of me as we arrived at regatta sites. We were amateurs. We had careers and families but were welded together in a mission to measure ourselves, ninety miles apart. Success or failure required each other. “Almost without exception, Belden or Klecatsky won the lightweight singles at the Nationals. We also met in the quarter-mile dashes, in doubles and in quads. The only place I could ‘own him’ was in Canada or in fall head races. He even came to New York and led me down ‘my course,’ and I would return the favor in Philly.”7017 Belden: “I thought of Larry obsessively, trying to find the right strategy or workouts to get over the top. His picture was on my fridge every winter to keep me from getting too big. “I first beat Larry in 1970, and then chased him for four more years before I finally caught him again at the 1974 Trials.”7018 Klecatsky: “Bill and I always had great battles at the Nationals. When he won the 7017 Klecatsky, personal conversation, 2010 7018 Belden, op. cit. Trials in 1974 by a little bit and then went on to win the Worlds by a lot, I started thinking about how I had been pretty close to him . . . and . . . ”7019 Belden: “In 1976, Larry and I came in eighth in the heavy doubles at the Montréal Olympics.”7020 Klecatsky: “That was a reflective year for me. I beat Dietz twice before the Olympic Singles Trials in May, but Jim’s power and skill were too much in the final, which he won. My consolation was twofold: Belden had not made the Olympic Trials final while I had, and we finally talked and created an unbeatable double by American standards, perhaps better than either of us with Dietz. “We won the 1976 U.S. Olympic Doubles Trials. “Belden and Klecatsky met every other day in Princeton, rowing in the PM and following AM, and then returning to work respectively in Philly and New York. We used our own equipment (a U.S.-built Pocock), no coaching, some money for pizza and a dorm room (hot!) at Princeton. Both of us returned immediately to our respective jobs and families after the Olympic final in Montréal. “I won the Trials for the Lightweight Singles World Championship that year after the Olympics. Bill did not enter. In Austria I got fourth in a rented heavyweight boat. “Two days after I returned were the heats for five events at the Nationals in Philly. Belden won the lightweight singles final. I settled for two Golds in the doubles and one in the quads. “I beat Dietz in the November Trials to represent the U.S. in an invitational regatta in Brazil, and I won the head races in my single and with Dietz in a double. 7019 Klecatsky, op. cit. 7020 Belden, op. cit. 1964
