THE SPORT OF ROWING Dietz: “The speed that Tiff and I had in the last 500m was great. With a little practice we might have been able to put together a better starting 500m that would have had us in better position at the finish. “Hindsight!”7339 Wood: “But we were second. For what we had, I think we did okay.”7340 Altekruse: “We finished fourth in the Trials. We were just dead. There was no way we were going to win that race, although we went out there to try.”7341 Olympic Quads Trials Later that same day came the Quads Trials, no heats necessary, just a final. Purdy: “The race in Lucerne had given us confidence that we could move the boat with Jack in bow. Despite this, after our return to Hanover, Harry continued to seat race Tiff, taking no time for tapering and rest before the Trials. I don’t think Harry thought that the Trials would be a challenge for the Camp boats. He underestimated the speed of the challenge boat. “We went into the Lucerne Regatta tired and never had time to recover before the Trials. I remember feeling exhausted during the warm-ups in Princeton.”7342 Altekruse: “In a last desperate attempt to make the Olympic Team, Joe, Tiff, Dan Louis and I jumped into a quad to race our own Camp Quad (thereby automatically switching the anti-camp crowd allegiance to us!?!?)”7343 Dietz: “I did not go out to race in that quad at the 1984 Trials. I had had enough!”7344 7339 Dietz, op. cit. 7340 Wood, op. cit. 7341 Altekruse, op. cit. 7342 Purdy, op. cit. 7343 Ibid. 7344 Dietz, op. cit. Not surprisingly, given what must have been the worst end to the worst day of their individual and collective rowing careers, the combo entry finished more than 100 meters into last place. 1 Charles River B 2 Olympic Camp 3 Combo 6:03.5 6:07.0 6:30.8 Lewis: “Bloody Sunday.”7345 Purdy: “We were aware that the double had lost. Our race was flat. The challenge boat moved on us early, and we never were able to move back. “The row back to the boathouse was the longest of my life.”7346 The Charles River Rowing Club Quad that won the Trials was made up of Camp cuts and rejects: stroke Greg Montesi, Singles Trials finalist and U.S. Marine, 3 Ridgely Johnson, Princeton University ‘80, 2 Bruce Beall, University of Washington ‘84, and bow Curtis Fleming, Orange Coast College and UCIrvine, a teammate and training partner of Brad Lewis off and on since high school. Aftermath With all his boats defeated, Harry Parker offered to resign as Olympic Coach. This had to have been one of the toughest days in his long and storied career. Halberstam’s retelling of Harry’s self- reflection is poignant. Mike Totta: “My recollection was that the Olympic rowing people gave Korzo the eight job right after the 1983 Worlds – the decision happening in late August or early September, and from that moment until December most of us in the sculling group in Boston saw very little of Harry. 7345 Qtd. by Halberstam, p. 189 7346 Purdy, op. cit. 2046