Thor Nilsen and the Modern Orthodox Style
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THE ERA OF POLARIZATION 148. Women in the 1980s Romania – USA – 1984 Olympics FISA 1984 Video Romania Woman’s Single Sculler Valeria Roşca-Răcilă 1984 Olympic Champion, Lake Casitas 5‟9” 176cm 163lb. 74kg 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 Los Angeles 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 2113 THE SPORT OF ROWING FISA 1984 Video Romania Women’s Eight 1984 Olympic Silver Medal, Lake Casitas Stroke Lucia Sauca 5‟10” 179cm 172lb. 78kg -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 Yugoslavia [now Slovenia], Romanian both days in Lucerne earlier in the summer women medaled in five of the six women‟s of 1984, substantially increasing the events. In the three years leading up to the credibility of the results on Lake Casitas, in 1984 Los Angeles Games, they only missed the hills east of Santa Barbara, California. two of eighteen finals, winning eleven medals, one Gold, three Silver and seven Romania Bronze. During that same period, GDR also won During the 1970s, frustrated at eleven medals, five Gold, four Silver and perennially finishing behind the Soviets and two Bronze, while the Soviets won an GDR in international sport, the Romanian astonishing sixteen medals in eighteen events, an incredible twelve Gold, two Government instituted a well-funded 7570 program to create world-class athletes, Silver and two Bronze. including a major effort in women‟s rowing. Perhaps it was continuing frustration The level of government commitment was that led the Romanians to defy the Soviet- similar to that of the GDR Sports System led Olympic boycott and send their Olympic during the same period.7569 teams to Los Angeles. By the end of the decade, at the 1979 World Rowing Championships in Bled, 7570 Between 1981 and 1983, U.S. women won 7569 See Chapter 119. six medals, four Silver and two Bronze. 2114 THE ERA OF POLARIZATION The Romanian 1984 Olympic squad was rowing, development and training of led by single sculler Valeria Roşca-Răcilă , Romanian athletes was based on sculling, 5‟9” 176lb. 163lb. 74kg, a worthy successor and so it was no surprise that they excelled to 5‟9” 176cm 165lb. 75kg Romanian in the sculling events on Lake Casitas. Sanda Toma, World and 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” 174cm 161lb. 73kg, body movements as sweep rowers tended to 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 broke. 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 7571 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 7572 continued in the person 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 7571 See Chapter 119. 7572 Mitchell, personal conversation, 2006 2115 THE SPORT OF ROWING Bob Ernst 1984 United States Women’s Eight 3 Carol Bower 5‟8” 172cm 163lb. 74kg 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. ended up wanting them all on my National there was a genesis that went right back to Teams.”7573 Korzeniowski!”7574 Curtis Jordan, Princeton women‟s coach for seven years and men‟s coach for Force Application nineteen: “Bob is one of those kinds of guys who understood what Korzeniowski was Much as it had been for Harry Parker at teaching, was able to develop and actually the National Women‟s Selection Camps of made a system out of it. Lori Dauphiny 1975 and 1976, the approach to force rowed for Bob at the UW, and when she application for the athletes who greeted the started coaching the women here at U.S. National Coaches was Modern Princeton, she had a very particular way of Orthodox Kernschlag, the American norm. teaching people how to row with long As had been the case for a decade, the layback. It was very clear when you saw athlete pool in the run-up to 1984 contained one of Laurie‟s crews. You could see it, and a healthy dose of Wisconsin Badger blood. 7573 Ernst, personal conversation, 2005 7574 Jordan, personal conversation, 2006 2116 THE ERA OF POLARIZATION Wisconsin crews of the era, both men and death working on technique, waiting to see women, were especially well known for who Buzz would eventually cut.”7576 Rosenberg sequentiality and post-Rosenberg The 1982 U.S. sweep women won explosive Kernschlag, and given their severe Silver in both the four and the eight. climate, they made up for lack of water time with pure determination. 1983 As had Bob‟s mentor and predecessor, Kris Korzeniowski, Bob quickly set out to In 1983, when Bob took over as head break their Kernschlag force application U.S women‟s coach, he inherited a group of habit and replace it with Schubschlag. international medalists. One, Wisconsin‟s Kelly Mitchell, 1980 Olympic quad Carie Graves, had actually hung in since coxswain: “1980 was Bob Ernst‟s year with the Silver Medalist Red Rose Crew of the quad, and his whole thing was fast hands 1975,7577 hoping to finally gain the Gold away, fast hands away. I remember one day Medal that had eluded the U.S. in the Nancy Vespoli switched places. She coxed, intervening years. and I went to the bow of the quad and had to do what they were doing. I spent so much Kris Thorsness, 1984 7-seat: “I was energy trying to get the hands away fast that one of those pesky Wisco women about I had no energy left for the stroke. I wonder 7575 whom Bob loves to (affectionately) com- what they think about that now.” plain. “In 1982, my first summer on the U.S. 1981 Team, he stopped practice once and found himself at a loss for words to describe the In Korzeniowski‟s last year coaching the way I was rowing. Or wasn‟t rowing. I‟m American women, he coached the U.S. sure I deserved it. Women‟s eight to Silver while Bob coached “That summer, I kept my toenails the women‟s coxed-four to Bronze.