Row for your country. Row for each other. Row for that one moment when everything that’s stacked against you can take a back seat.
They’re just kids, Al.[Hazel Ulbrickson]That’s why everybody told me I was wrong for bringing them. I just can’t afford for them to be kids. Not anymore.[Al Ulbrickson]
Technique is more important than power. You have to be able to pull a perfect oar, stroke after stroke. It’s called swing. When all eight are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action is out of sync with the rest of the boat. Then you aren’t fighting each other. You’re moving with less effort. Each one of your strokes is worth one and a half of the other boat’s. Most crews never find it. But when they do, rowing is more poetry than sport.
It isn’t easy to trust every other person on that boat as much as you trust yourself. But it’s not about you. As good as you are, it’s not about you, or me, or anybody else. It’s about the boat.[to Joe]
Fellas, you’ve earned this. They don’t give gold medals for style. All that matters is how fast you are on the water. And nobody here is faster.
Everybody else tires and they just get stronger.[to Tom]
Eight-man crew is the most difficult team sport in the world. The average human body is just not meant for such things. It’s just not capable of such things. But average is not gonna get a seat on my boat.
Each seat on the boat has its own purpose. Like eight separate parts of one great racehorse.
Athletes should be rewarded for performance. No politics, no adjusted scoring or selection based on wealth and standing. May the best man win.
