THE ERA OF POLARIZATION best-selling book about Harry and several of the American male scullers preparing for and competing in the Los Angeles Olympics. Halberstam: “The fact that the Olympic Rowing Committee had picked a foreigner, scorning the best of the American coaches, had devastated Parker. After years of being unchallenged, he felt betrayed, and he protested the committee’s decision in the most personal terms.”7071 In a move reminiscent of 1976, as was discussed above, Harry finally accepted an appointment to a “lesser job” as coach of the Olympic men’s scullers, until then only an afterthought in American rowing. Halberstam: “He never entirely reconciled himself to his diminished status.”7072 Nevertheless, as had been the case with women’s rowing in 1975 an ‘76, having the great Harry Parker as coach automatically lent instant credibility to a previously under- appreciated and underutilized segment of American rowing. Many remarkable athletes converted to sculling just because of Harry’s presence. For better or for worse, the memorable events leading up to the 1984 Olympics would not and could not have happened without Harry. If there are echoes of Homer’s tragic heroes in this story, Harry Parker would be their Helen of Troy and John Biglow their Paris, beautiful prince, obsessed with Helen, destined to slay Achilles. Biglow in 1981 Biglow: “Even though I had had a successful sweep career at Yale, I was not known as a fast sculler at this point, so when I arrived in Boston from Seattle, I just came out of nowhere. 7071 Halberstam, p. 163 7072 Ibid. “There was already a big group of scullers in Cambridge working with Harry. They were going out and doing one-minute pieces. I think they were doing fifteen one- minute pieces the first day I joined them. “Although I was really champing at the bit and felt like I was eager and ready to go, I remember starting off and really not opening up my throttle all out because I wasn’t familiar with the workout. “I had heard so much about Tiff, and I remember wanting to stay close to him. I would start slightly behind just to make sure I was being honest about it, and I remember not really caring if I was half a length down because I felt so under control, and then I just remember feeling very confident and comfortable that I could beat him if I wanted. I immediately knew it in that first workout. “I actually did get ahead of him in a couple of pieces that day, and he came back to the dock and said, ‘You beat me a few times, John.’ He was really bummed, but he started treating me with respect. “That was my entry into the national level of sculling. “There are maybe two or three races in my life that I consider great races that I loved and will cherish in my memory, and one of them was the 1981 Northeast Regionals against Tiff up in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was a short race, maybe 1,500 meters, and it ended right in front of the Dartmouth boathouse.”7073 Halberstam: “Wood had gone out very quickly and very hard, at a 38, an unusually high stroke. He had kept it up for the first 500 meters, and for all of that he was only three-quarters of a length ahead. Then in the second 500 Biglow had almost rowed through Wood, but Wood had held on. “With 500 meters left, when they were almost dead even, Wood started to sprint. 7073 Biglow, op. cit. 1977
