THE SPORT OF

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As we begin the New Year, I am happy ments, additional sources or illustrations, if to announce that all four volumes of my you would like to add your own perspective, book, the culmination of seven years of re- etc. please email me at the address below. search, will be available for purchase on this Your input represents an essential contribu- website in October of 2011. Details will be tion to what has always been intended to be forthcoming in the coming months. a joint project of the rowing community, so please contribute. If you and I end up final- This latest excerpt on row2k is the third ly disagreeing on some relevant point or of five that touch on the women’s rowing in another, I will be thrilled to present both the 1970s, 1980s and beyond. alternatives so the readers can decide for The subject of this draft chapter is wom- themselves. en’s rowing at the 1984 Olympics, a fasci- nating competition partly because it did not Incidentally, many thanks to all who include the teams from GDR and the Soviet wrote to thank me and to make corrections Union. and add comments, photos, anecdotes, etc. to the recent postings on the 1984 U.S. The following .pdf is in the format in- men’s scullers and on Ted Nash. Drafts tended for the final printed book. It is from with all the updates are now posted for you the fourth of four volumes. on row2k.

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THE SPORT OF ROWING

148. Women in the 1980s

Romania – USA – 1984 Olympics

FISA 1984 Video

Romanian Single Sculler Valeria Roşca-Răcilă , 5‟9” 176 cm 163 lb. 74 kg 1984 Olympic Champion, Lake Casitas 0°, +35° to -25°, 0-8, 0-10, 0-10 Classical Technique Hybrid-concurrent Kernschlag Elegant pendulum backswing Very strong drive to send at finish.

During the 1980s, the polarization accomplished no political goal. The 1984 between the Classical Technique and Olympics were then marred by Modern Orthodoxy also played itself out in a tit-for-tat Soviet boycott, equally pointless, women‟s rowing, with Eastern Bloc squads equally hurtful to athletes on both sides. on the one hand and some but not all The rowers most missed in L.A. were Western crews on the other. the GDR and the Soviet women, who The 1980 Olympics in Moscow had between them had won seventeen of the been cruelly undermined by a United States- eighteen Gold Medals awarded in the led boycott which punished all athletes and previous three years. However, the GDR

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FISA 1984 Video

Romanian Women’s Stroke Lucia Sauca 5‟10” 179 cm 172 lb. 78 kg 1984 Olympic Silver Medal, Lake Casitas -5°, +45° to -15°, 0-8, 0-10, 4-10 Classical Technique Hybrid-concurrent Kernschlag Awkward catch position. Not pretty, just effective. women‟s eight had lost to the United States women medaled in five of the six women‟s both days in Luzern earlier in the summer of events. In the three years leading up to the 1984, substantially increasing the credibility 1984 Los Angeles Games, they only missed of the results on Lake Casitas, in the hills two of eighteen finals, winning eleven east of Santa Barbara, California. medals, one Gold, three Silver and seven Bronze. Romania During that same period, GDR also won eleven medals, five Gold, four Silver and During the 1970s, frustrated at two Bronze, while the Soviets won an perennially finishing behind the Soviets and astonishing sixteen medals in eighteen events, an incredible twelve Gold, two GDR in international sport, the Romanian 7196 Government instituted a well-funded Silver and two Bronze. program to create world-class athletes, Perhaps it was continuing frustration including a major effort in women‟s rowing. that led the Romanians to defy the Soviet- The level of government commitment was led Olympic boycott and send their Olympic similar to that of the GDR Sports System teams to Los Angeles. during the same period.7195 By the end of the decade, at the 1979 The Romanian 1984 Olympic squad was World Rowing Championships in Bled, led by single sculler Valeria Roşca-Răcilă , Yugoslavia [now Slovenia], Romanian

7196 Between 1981 and 1983, U.S. women won 7195 See Chapter 119. six medals, four Silver and two Bronze.

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5‟9” 176 lb. 163 lb. 74 kg, a worthy Romanian athletes was based on sculling, successor to 5‟9” 176 cm 165 lb. 75 kg and so it was no surprise that they excelled Romanian Sanda Toma, World and in the sculling events on Lake Casitas. Olympic Champion from 1979 through 1981. Romanian athletes also brought their Roşca-Răcilă had won double sculls training and discipline and their sculling- Bronze in 1979 and 1980 with partner Olga trained athletes to sweep events, but their Bularda-Homeghi 5‟9” 174 cm 161 lb. 73 body movements as sweep rowers tended to kg, stroke of the 1984 Olympic Gold Medal be a bit less elegant, a characteristic which coxed-four, and then switched to the single has persisted into the 21st Century. in 1982 when Toma retired. She placed The Romanian four and eight rowed second by one inch at the Worlds in 1982 with impeccable bladework, sometimes and then failed to finish the 1983 final when awkward posture but very effective leg drive her oarlock collapsed. and body swing and send to the boat. On Lake Casitas in 1984 Roşca-Răcilă won by open water. In 1985, she won Silver 1984 U.S. Sweep Rowers and then retired to join her husband, Dutch canoeist Steven van Groningen. American woman sweep rowers represented the other side of the Classical- Romanian training was founded on Modern Orthodox divide. When American mileage, as many as three sessions a day of legislation popularly known as Title IX was “long slow distance” or LSD training which 7197 passed requiring parity of funding between originated in GDR. male and female athletes on university Kelly Mitchell, coxswain of the 1984 campuses, colleges began turning out U.S. women‟s coxed-quad: “We would row increasing numbers of talented female a heat, then go back down for ten or fifteen athletes. minutes and come in. We noticed that the Kris Korzeniowski had left the U.S. in Romanians would go out for another hour of 1981 after coaching the National Women‟s rowing. They had a really long warm up Team for four years, Kris‟s influence and a really long warm down, noticeably 7198 continued in the persona of University of different from any other team there.” Washington coach Bob Ernst. Bob had begun his coaching career with Their race tactics were also similar to the men at the University of California at GDR: set a withering pace in the first 500, Irvine. In 1974, his varsity nearly upset the and pull away as others wilted during the Washington Huskies in the Western Sprint second 500. Championships. Shortly thereafter, Bob was Valeria Roşca-Răcilă sculled in the hired as freshman coach at the UW. Classical Technique with strong legs and an After Title IX, Bob became the elegant pendulum backswing. Washington Women‟s Coach, and what The Romanian women‟s double and followed were six championships for the quad showed the same level of finesse as Husky women. “It would have been seven, they also captured Olympic Gold in 1984. but those darn Wisconsin women snuck in With no long-standing tradition in sweep one year! They were sensational, and I rowing, development and training of ended up wanting them all on my National 7199 Teams.” 7197 See Chapter 119. 7198 Mitchell, personal conversation, 2006 7199 Ernst, personal conversation, 2005

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Bob Ernst

1984 United States Women’s Eight 3 5‟8” 172 cm 163 lb. 74 kg at low stroke, steady state Hanover, New Hampshire -5°, +40° to -30°, 0-6, 0-9, 4-10 Modern Orthodox Technique, Schubschlag In practice, Coach Ernst had them working on exaggerated back swing and acceleration to the finish in order to eliminate front-end Kernschlag.

Curtis Jordan, Princeton women‟s Force Application coach for seven years and men‟s coach for nineteen: “Bob is one of those kinds of guys Much as it had been for at who understood what Korzeniowski was the National Women‟s Selection Camps of teaching, was able to develop and actually 1975 and 1976, the approach to force made a system out of it. Lori Dauphiny application for the athletes who greeted the rowed for Bob at the UW, and when she U.S. National Coaches was Modern started coaching the women here at Orthodox Kernschlag, the American norm. Princeton, she had a very particular way of As had been the case for a decade, the teaching people how to row with long athlete pool in the run-up to 1984 contained layback. It was very clear when you saw a healthy dose of Wisconsin Badger blood. one of Laurie‟s crews. You could see it, and Wisconsin crews of the era, both men and there was a genesis that went right back to 7200 women, were especially well known for Korzeniowski!” Rosenberg sequentiality and post-Rosenberg explosive Kernschlag, and given their severe

7200 Jordan, personal conversation, 2006

THE SPORT OF ROWING climate, they made up for lack of water time 1983 with pure determination. As had Bob‟s mentor and predecessor, In 1983, when Bob took over as head Kris Korzeniowski, Bob quickly set out to U.S women‟s coach, he inherited a group of break their Kernschlag force application international medalists. One, Wisconsin‟s habit and replace it with Schubschlag. , had actually hung in since Kelly Mitchell, 1980 Olympic quad the Silver Medalist Red Rose Crew of coxswain: “1980 was Bob Ernst‟s year with 1975,7203 hoping to finally gain the Gold the quad, and his whole thing was fast hands Medal that had eluded the U.S. in the away, fast hands away. I remember one day intervening years. Nancy Vespoli switched places. She coxed, and I went to the bow of the quad and had to Kris Thorsness, 1984 7-seat: “I was do what they were doing. I spent so much one of those pesky Wisco women about energy trying to get the hands away fast that whom Bob loves to (affectionately) com- I had no energy left for the stroke. I wonder 7201 plain. what they think about that now.” “In 1982, my first summer on the U.S. Team, he stopped practice once and shouted 1981 that I rowed „like a bleeping paraplegic,‟ which at the time probably wasn‟t far off, In Korzeniowski‟s last year coaching the though I did feel the need to ask him how a American women, he coached the U.S. paraplegic rows and bleeps at the same Women‟s eight to Silver while Bob coached time.7204 the women‟s coxed-four to Bronze. Seven “That summer, I kept my toenails of the eight who would end up in the 1984 painted Wisco red with a white „W‟ on my Olympic crew were already on board. big toes just to tweak him. I think . . . he loved it . . . 1882 “He yelled at me a lot. He yelled at everyone a lot back then. I figured that I In 1982, the priority boat was supposed deserved it about 98% of the time, and I to be the pair, but Carol Bower and Kathy was willing to let the rest slide. Keeler won the Trials and declared they “As you can probably tell, I have weren‟t interested. deep respect and affection for Bob. You The priority boat then became the could not find a more dedicated and focused coxed-four under Northeastern men‟s coach coach, and that caused some friction with Buzz Congram, while Ernst coached the other boats, whose coaches were perhaps not eight. as assertive on their behalf. “It‟s a darn shame that he didn‟t get a Ernst: “That worked out great for me. 7205 Buzz got all the skill people, while I got the medal in „84, too.” next sixteen and could just row them to death working on technique, waiting to see Bob Ernst: “What you try to do just who Buzz would eventually cut.”7202 work on execution, rehearsal, rehearsal, The 1982 U.S. sweep women won execution, to make the boat go as fast as Silver in both the four and the eight. 7203 See Chapter 126. 7204 I‟m sure everyone would be more sensitive 7201 Mitchell, op cit. in their word choice if they had it all to do over. 7202 Ernst, op cit, 2006 7205 Thorsness, personal correspondence, 2006

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FISA 1984 Video

1984 United States Women’s Eight Olympic Champion, Lake Casitas Pulling away from Romania in the last 200 meters Coxswain Elizabeth Beard, Stroke 5‟9” 175 cm 165 lb. 75 kg, 7 Kris Thorsness 5‟9” 175 cm 152 lb. 69 kg, 6 Kristi Norelius 6‟1” 185 cm 168 lb. 76 kg, 5 5‟10” 177 cm 179 lb. 81 kg, 4 Carie Graves 6‟1” 186 cm 170 lb. 77 kg, 3 Carol Bower 5‟8” 172 cm 163 lb. 74 kg, 2 Holly Metcalf 5‟8” 172 cm 163 lb. 74 kg, Bow Shyril O’Steen 5‟9” 176 cm 148 lb. 67 kg possible, and we always had the attitude that pressure (emphasizing matching, control and if somebody beats us, they‟re just faster than synchronized power application), two us.”7206 minutes at 30-32 spm at 80% pressure (emphasizing smoothness and relaxation), The training that Bob gave his crews in one minute at 36-38 spm at 90% pressure the two years leading up to the Los Angeles (emphasizing quickness), then right back Games included frequent full-pressure rows into three minutes at 18 full pressure, and at 18 strokes per minute. As has occurred the cycle repeats. When I do 3/2/1s in my repeatedly throughout history, crews forced single nowadays, I can still hear Bob talking to row full pressure at a low stroke tend to about power, control and relaxation. draw the stroke out, emphasizing layback “Complete effort and concentration was and surge to the finish in order to get the absolutely required on every stroke of every most run out of each stroke. piece of every practice. Even a momentary Thorsness: “We did a lot of „3/2/1,‟ lapse could result in a brutal tongue-lashing which was three minutes at 18 spm at full from Bob, while the rest of the team listened and watched.

7206 Ernst, ABC Television Olympic coverage.

THE SPORT OF ROWING

FISA 1984 Video

United States Women’s Eight 3 Carol Bower, 2 Holly Metcalf 1984 Olympic Champions, Lake Casitas -5°, +40° to -15°, 0-7, 0-9, 4-10 Modern Orthodox, Hybrid Concurrent, Schubschlag Strong legs, then emphasis on back swing to ferryman‟s finish

“Years later, I asked him why he was so so bad. That SOB Ernst isn‟t here yelling at hard on us, to which he responded that he us.‟ wanted to make sure that when we found “Perhaps more than anyone, he realized ourselves on the starting line with the what it would take to beat the Eastern Bloc Russians on one side and the Easties on the crews.”7207 other, each one of us would think, „This isn‟t

7207 Thorsness, op cit.

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At the 1983 Worlds in Duisburg, West late arm break, back and arms finishing Germany, Bob‟s crews won a third together to produce strong, consistent consecutive Silver in the eight and came in acceleration all the way to the send at the fifth in the coxed-four. finish. Arms broke quite late and finished Technique concurrently with the back to complete the surging pullthrough. This was done well The 1984 crew called themselves “fast and consistently by all members of the crew and ugly,” but this was only half-true. They with the sole exception of Carie Graves in were actually a beautiful crew that was the 4-seat, the tallest, strongest and most indeed fast enough to beat GDR twice in experienced member, who omitted the Lucerne before returning to the States for backswing to the finish and completed her the Olympics. pullthrough with her arms only. Their technique was Modern Orthodox, showing hybrid-concurrent use of the legs Carie Graves and back, with the leg motion dominating early. The pullthrough as a whole took its In 1984, Carie Graves was a relatively rhythm from the high arc of the back swing, new phenomenon in American women‟s generating very strong surge to the finish. rowing. Throughout history, most U.S. rowers had ended their competitive careers Legs ended much earlier than with the when they graduated from college. This Romanian crew, but the result was the same, only began to change for the men after Kernschlag with surge maintained to the World War II. release. The 1948 Washington Olympic coxed- Thorsness: “Bob talked a lot about four tried to come back after graduation in placing the blade in the water with a backing 1952 but fell just short.7209 Logg and Price, motion to maximize the length, and then leg the 1952 Rutgers Olympic Champion drive and get a quick change of direction. coxless-pair,7210 and the 1952 Navy He‟d shout „Cha Cha Cha‟ as we took our Olympic Champion eight7211 got back catches. The 1986 Eight later had this together after a couple of years and fell just printed on shirts with Bob‟s picture. short at the 1956 Olympic Trials. Fifer and “There was also a big emphasis on Hecht, the 1952 Stanford Olympic coxed- hanging your weight on straight arms for the pair,7212 got back together after three years first phase of leg drive and accelerating the and won Olympic Gold in the coxless-pair handle into and around the back end of the in 1956. stroke with no rhythm breaks, like a bicycle In the United States, serious women‟s chain going around the sprocket. National Team rowing only began in 1975, “Shins were to be perpendicular at the and Carie, a junior at Wisconsin, had been catch, and the body swung open in a „C‟ the stroke of the first National Camp Eight, shape rather than like a door.”7208 the World Silver Medal Red Rose Crew. In The overall approach was very similar to the Modern Orthodox Technique of Thor Nilsen, Kris Korzeniowski and Giuseppe la

Mura, coach of the Abbagnale brothers: 7209 strong initial leg drive, unifying back swing, See Chapter 61. 7210 See Chapter 81. 7211 See Chapter 64. 7208 Ibid. 7212 See Chapter 81.

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1976, she was 6 in the Olympic Bronze chance, I wouldn‟t have won my seat races Medal Camp Eight.7213 and would not have been in the eight. After she graduated from Wisconsin, “I certainly welcomed the long taper she kept on competing. In 1979, she stroked prior the Games! the World fifth-place pair with fellow- Badger and „76 U.S. teammate Peggy “At our 20th Reunion in Seattle a couple McCarthy. In 1980, Carie was again 6-seat of years ago, we were all sitting in the in the U.S. Camp eight, made up mostly of a Pocock Boathouse at a big round table, and I new generation of woman athletes. They shared this memory with the team. I was were denied the opportunity to compete in very honest and got it off my chest. After I Moscow by the U.S. Olympic boycott. finished, they sat there and stared at me with After 1980, Carie was one of only a jaws agape, shocked. Apparently no one handful of American women who dedicated else had felt that way!”7214 themselves to train for a third Olympics, but Thorsness: “I recall that Carie was so training was not her only pursuit. She had inflexible at the beginning of that summer also been coaching the Radcliffe crew since that she could not touch her knees, let alone 1977 and would receive her Master‟s of her toes. Bob made us all do this pre- Education in Administration, Planning and practice stretching routine, and by the end of Social Policy from Harvard in 1985. the summer, Carie could touch her toes (just In 1981 and 1983, Carie and her barely). teammates in the U.S. Eight won Silver to “We didn‟t care. Even half of Carie‟s go along with her Silver Medal from 1975. stroke was a whole lot of power.”7215 She was the only member left of the Red Rose Crew, and by 1984 the years were The Race beginning to take their toll. Carie: “By that Olympic summer, I felt Ernst said there was little strategy to the as if I was no longer on top of it and Olympic final: “The women race 1,000 couldn‟t get there anymore. The harder I meters in international competition.7216 tried and the harder I rowed, the worse I got, We‟re not going to make any tactical error and let me make this clear – I did not have because we don‟t have any tactics. There‟s this experience for my other two Olympic no such thing as playing defense in a 1,000 eights. meter race. It‟s all straight offence. The “In „84, I felt old and worn out and was only kind of strategy that you can possibly not recovering enough between workouts have in 1,000 meter races is to get from the prior to boat selection. Jeanne Flanagan (5- start to the finish as quick as you possibly seat) and I had come dead last (way back) in can.7217 the pair racing at Princeton prior to Coxswain : “Our strategy selection, so it was clear to me that it wasn‟t was to go faster, faster and faster.”7218 going well for me. Thorsness: “Our race was delayed, and “I felt that Bob wanted me in there, but it was hot that day. When we finally got to for the first time in my rowing career I felt guilty and undeserving that I was in the boat. I wasn‟t given the chance to prove 7214 Graves, personal correspondence, 2006 myself, but I felt that if I had been given the 7215 Thorsness, op cit. 7216 It was increased to 2,000 meters in 1985. 7217 Ernst, ABC Television Olympic coverage. 7218 Qtd. by Kathryn Reith, Sunrise over Casitas, 7213 See Chapter 126. Rowing USA October/November 1984, p. 29

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THE ERA OF POLARIZATION the starting line on Lake Casitas, we were experience and prepared me to sit behind her tight, tight, tight. We sat for what felt like at 7. forever on the line, and once underway, we “Kristi Norelius, Carie Graves and stayed tight and a bit short, perhaps too Jeanne Flannagan were the power core and aware of the Romanians.”7219 made it feel like you were riding a rocket off The U.S. eight came off the line at 47 to the line. Wonderful women, but lord, what the Romanians‟ 45, and soon both crews had beasts! a deck on the field. “That‟s not to say that Carol Bower and American stroke Kathy Keeler settled Holly Metcalf weren‟t powerhouses her crew to 42 after 250 meters, and that was themselves. Relatively short of stature, yes, the lowest they ever got. but so strong technically and absolutely After falling behind a couple of feet at driven. 300 meters, the Romanians crossed the 500 “Shyril O’Steen, up in the bow, was meter mark a couple of feet ahead of the smoothness personified. U.S., with the rest of the field half a length “To finish the package, Bob Ernst was down. relentless and meticulous, which made us Thorsness: “With about 300 meters to Olympic Champions. I‟ve always been in go, Betsy said something like „We‟re going awe of them all and am so acutely aware of to go, and we‟re going to go now!‟ which the great honor it was to row with them.”7222 focused us back in our boat and caused the move that left the Romanians behind for “The Gold Medal was not only the first good.”7220 ever for U.S. women but the first in World Graves, 4-seat: “I remember looking or Olympic competition for any non- over at the Romanians when we were still communist country”7223 in any women‟s behind with about 250 meters to go and event. Add in the European Championships thinking, „[Bleep] this! We are NOT going going back to 1954, and only five Golds in to lose this race‟”7221 twenty-nine years had ever gone to crews At 800 meters, it was the U.S. moving not part of the Eastern Bloc, a truly through and away as Keeler had them back astounding statistic! up to 44. The final margin was a third of a length, with the Dutch in third, a full length Postscript behind. Thorsness: “I really credit Betsy Beard Carol Bower has made a career of with that win. Of course, everyone in that coaching crew and is presently the head boat had enormous reserves of physical and coach of the Bryn Mawr College. mental strength that they brought to bear in After stints as head coach at Radcliffe their own way. College and Northeastern University, Carie “Kathy was pure focus and intensity Graves is now head coach at the University during a race. She absolutely hated to lose of Texas. Among a basket-full of awards, and was the perfect stroke of an extremely she has twice been inducted into the headstrong crew. She and I had rowed a National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame. pair that year, which gave me invaluable So much for not deserving a place in the 1984 eight.

7219 Thorsness, op cit. 7220 Ibid. 7222 Thorsness, op cit. 7221 Graves, op cit. 7223 Reith, op cit, p. 34

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United States Scullers place U.S. eight, ended up in an extremely strong 1984 U.S. Olympic coxed-quad put After a decade of work by coaches together by Van Blom. Steering was Kelly around the country, but mostly by Tom Rickon, now Mitchell, in high school the McKibbon and John Van Blom at Long former ZLAC Rowing Club teammate of Lynn Silliman, coxswain of the Red Rose Beach Rowing Association, the 1984 U.S. 7224 women‟s sculling squad was also deep in Crew. experienced international talent, but they Marden and Rohde had already been tended to row a different technique from training with Joan for a year in Long Beach. their sweep sisters, tending to row a variant “Lisa felt they had already built a lot of of Classical Technique as opposed to respect for each other by training and racing Modern Orthodoxy. in their singles every day. “„We looked at putting the quad 7225 The 1984 Single together as a challenge.‟”

Judy Geer had been Dartmouth Carlie’s Technique College‟s first captain of the Women‟s crew. She made her first National Team In her single, Carlie Geer‟s position at appearance as a sweep rower in 1976 and the entry showed a mix of less than normal had been a National Team sculler since leg compression and greater than normal 1977. By the 1980s, along with body angle forward with her head low, she was the last of the 1970s generation of something she shared with other American scullers of the era, including Gregg U.S. international woman scullers to still 7226 compete. In 1981, Judy came in fifth at the Stone from the 1970s and Munich World Championships in the double in the „84 quad. with her younger sister, Carlie Geer. Quad coxswain Kelly Rickon Mitchell: Carlie then rowed as a member of the “One thing that Carlie did really well that 1982 fourth-place and the 1983 fifth-place we were trying to do in our own boat was to National Camp quads, the latter stroked by break her arms right at the catch. You‟d Judy. catch with arms straight, and you were When Carlie won the 1984 Olympic driving with your legs, but you were trying Singles Trials, it was a bit of an upset. to get your arms in right from the beginning, rather than just thinking about the legs and Among her competition were Joan Lind, 7227 1976 Olympic Singles Silver Medalist, and then your back and then your arms.” Ann Marden, National Team member since This was Classical Technique. From the 1978, who had won the 1981 U.S. Singles entry to Carlie‟s ferryman‟s finish, there was Championship and was destined to win fingers-to-toes commitment to concurrent World Singles Bronze in 1985, World Schubschlag acceleration. Doubles Bronze in 1987 and the 1988 Olympic Singles Silver Medal. In the Olympic final, the supremely But the favorite in „84 had been 1983 talented Romanian Valeria Roşca-Răcilă World Singles Bronze Medalist Ginny came off the line at 43, rowing long while Gilder until she suffered an injury only a month before the Trials. 7224 See Chapter 126. After losing to Carlie, Lind, Marden and 7225 Reith, op cit, p. 29 Gilder plus converted National sweep rower 7226 See Chapter 139. Lisa Rohde, stroke of the 1977 seventh- 7227 Mitchell, op cit.

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FISA 1984 Video

1984 United States Women’s Single Sculler Carlie Geer 5‟6” 167 cm 141 lb. 64 kg 1984 Olympic Silver Medal, Lake Casitas -5°, +45° to -15°, 0-8, 0-9, 0-10 Classical Technique Hybrid-concurrent Schubschlag, ferryman‟s finish. Chin lift was a stylistic idiosyncrasy Carlie shared with the sister, Judy.

Carlie rowed shorter at 47. At 350 meters 1:56.64 second 500, allowing Geer to when she shifted down, the young American actually close around one second by the end. was already two lengths behind. Carlie‟s Olympic Silver Medal matched The difference between the two scullers Joan Lind‟s of 1976. In 1988, Anne appeared to be Roşca-Răcilă‟s size and Marden would join their very exclusive strength and her very effective send at the group. It would be another twenty-four year finish. before another American woman7228 Outweighing Geer by 22 lb. 10 kg, she medaled in an Olympics, and the last accelerated all the way to her -25° layback American men‟s single sculler to win an position. By contrast, Carlie‟s acceleration Olympic medal was Jack Kelly, Jr.‟s was terminated early because of her Bronze in 1956! ferryman‟s finish, and she attempted to make up for that with her higher rating. The 1984 Quad Nevertheless, the race was basically over in the first minute. The technique of the U.S. quad at Lake Roşca-Răcilă‟s first 500 time was an Casitas demonstrated the challenge in extraordinary 1:44.01 in dead flat conditions. She cruised home with a 7228 Michelle Guerette, Silver in 2008.

THE SPORT OF ROWING choosing a composite crew of single scullers from all over the country in the few weeks before a championship regatta. Whereas the nucleus of the Romanian quad had already medaled in the World Championships two years earlier and showed a very commendable homogeneity of technique, the four Americans were a much less cohesive unit. Entry timing was only fair by international standards, perhaps due to the fact that Marden was apparently nursing a sore back in the Olympic final.

The coach given the task of selecting and developing the U.S. quad was John Van Blom of Long Beach. Mitchell: “Joan Lind is fiercely competitive, but you would never know that when you meet her because she is so gracious. Ginny Gilder was more up-front aggressive, but no match for Joan‟s quiet aggressiveness.”7229 Leg compression at the FISA 1984 Video entry in the 1984 boat spanned a range from minimal 1984 United States Women’s Coxed-Quad (Anne Marden, Princeton Olympic Silver Medal, Lake Casitas „81) to maximal (Ginny Stroke Ginny Gilder 5‟7” 170 cm 148 lb. 67 kg, Gilder, Yale „79). 3 Joan Lind 5‟9” 175 cm 150 lb. 68 kg, Mitchell: “Surge to the 2 Lisa Rohde 5‟9” 175 cm 148 lb. 67 kg, Bow Anne Marden 5‟7” 170 cm 150 lb. 68 kg, release. That‟s what we tried Coxswain Kelly Rickon Mitchell to do. We tried to accelerate +40° to -30°, 0-8, 0-9, 0-10 through the drive, and that Classical Technique, ferryman‟s finish was a big change for Anne Schubschlag in stern pair, Kernschlag in bow pair. and Lisa in the bow pair.”7230 Variations demonstrate challenge of uniting single scullers.

7229 Mitchell, op cit. 7230 Ibid.

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Lisa Rohde (Penn, „80) drove her legs These were four superb athletes, down much faster than the others, even America‟s best and brightest. Photos 3 shooting her tail slightly, betraying her through 6 on the previous page clearly show Modern Orthodox Kernschlag East Coast the effectiveness of the middle of their college roots. Both she and Marden hit the pullthrough after the bow pair‟s initial hit catch explosively in contrast to the had dissipated, and this was what earned Schubschlag force application pattern of them their Olympic Silver. Gilder and Lind in the stern pair. This Joan Lind, after the race: “We‟ve all discrepancy was the crucial difference been single scullers. We‟ve all been tops in between Romania and the USA, between the nation at some time, and it‟s been a real Olympic Gold and Silver. pleasure for us all to row together. We all Mitchell: “Poor Anne. She had the respected each other and knew what we each most trouble. could do. “She is an incredible athlete. In 1984 “We‟re a real team and the work she could not sit still. She always got jobs together has really paid off.”7232 wherever we were training. Everyone else would fall asleep during the day, take it The Quad Final easy, but not Anne. She‟d get a retail job, standing on her feet all day.” Mitchell: “We had practiced jumping “Today she‟s a VP for a brokerage the start, which was customary back then, house in London, incredibly smart, still but they called us for a false start in the incredibly driven. final. After they called everybody back, we had to actually wait for the next command, Training and when the race came off, we ended up last off the line.”7233 Mitchell: “One thing that John did that All the crews got off the line at 40-plus, was kind of exciting, different from any and West Germany quickly moved out to a other coach that I‟ve ever had, is that he had deck-length lead, with Romania second and us approach the 1,000 meters as a whole the U.S. at the tail of the still very closely- rather than as parts, you know, first 20, bunched field. power 10s, last 20, etc. By the 250 meter mark, France, Italy “He also did tempo training. He and Denmark were starting to slip back as figured out what he believed would be the the other three continued driving at 39. winning pace for the whole race, and then he By the 500, West Germany had a half- broke it down into time for every 100 length on Romania and a length on the U.S. meters. We would do pieces as fast as we in third. The other crews were still less than could, and he would time us each 100. As a second behind the Americans. soon as we fell behind the pace and didn‟t At the 750, the West Germans were still hit the mark for that 100, he would have us a length over the Americans, but the stop. Romanians had nearly caught them. “The first time we did it, we could only Denmark was a deck behind the U.S. in get 100 meters, but by the end we were fourth as the field drove for home. doing 600 meters. I thought it was a really By the 850, the Romanians had passed interesting training method.”7231 the West Germans, who had hit the wall.

7232 Lind, ABC Television Olympic coverage. 7231 Ibid. 7233 Mitchell, op cit.

THE SPORT OF ROWING

Geer in bow with 5‟11” 180 cm 159 lb. 72 kg Cathy Thaxton of ZLAC Rowing Club and Stanford University in stroke. “Thaxton had been out with a virus for much of May and June, making this boat a definite question mark.”7235 Mitchell: “Judy was an amazing person that got the shaft in 1984. Cathy got sick with some mysterious illness that no one www.concept2.com could diagnose. Cathy couldn‟t even practice, and their double was never a factor Judy Geer in the final. Meanwhile, the Americans and Danes were “Poor Judy. It was her ninth National moving fast on both leaders. At the finish Team and her third and last Olympics. line it was Romania only half a length ahead “Judy Geer is such an icon of American of the Americans, who were two-thirds of a women‟s rowing, and after the 1980 boycott, deck ahead of Denmark. West Germany had this was going to be her Olympics. faded to fourth. “The quad was the priority boat, and Judy didn‟t quite make it. It was just Mitchell: “We rowed our own race pace incredibly tough competition in 1984. and really did row through all the “The most fantastic row I had at the competition. How interesting that the West selection camp that year, and I can‟t even Germans just died, going from first to fourth tell you the lineup, but Joan was in there and in twenty strokes. Judy stroked it. “I think if that race had been longer, we “I‟ll never forget that day, and I will would have won because we were gaining always be grateful to Judy for our shared on the Romanians all the way up until the experiences.”7236 end. “John also had us do something else Judy Geer and her husband, Dick very interesting. We really shortened up Dreissigacker,7237 are principals in toward the end of the race, like we almost Concept2, the ergometer and oar maker. went to a „start‟ feeling in the last 20 strokes or so. We figured it was all about who had Ann Marden works and lives in their blades in the water. London with her husband, British rowing “We finished ahead of the third place coach Bruce Grainger.7238 crew by only a very small amount, and I think shortening propelled us to the Silver. Joan Lind Van Blom is in charge of “I credit John with a lot of little physical education for the Long Beach strategies that worked for us.”7234 Unified School District. She and her husband, John Van Blom,7239 still compete The Double internationally in shells and on ergs.

There was one more women‟s sculling 7235 Reith, op cit, p. 25 boat on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, the 7236 double, 5‟9” 175 cm 146 lb. 66 kg Judy Mitchell, op cit. 7237 See Chapter 122. 7238 See Chapter 144. 7234 Mitchell, op cit. 7239 See Chapter 88.

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Kelly Rickon Mitchell works in close personal friends since the 1970s when development. She and her family still live I was a teammate of Joan in Long Beach and in San Diego in the house she grew up in. Kelly‟s first coach in San Diego. My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed Many of these women have been to this chapter.