Olympics
Crew: Medal-winning eights have Seattle flavor

By Blaine Newnham
Seattle Times associate editor

ANDY CLARK / AP Former University of Washington rower Matt Deakin, with outstretched arms, celebrates with men's eight-oared shell teammates yesterday after the U.S. team won the gold medal in Athens, Greece. The last U.S. gold in the event came in the 1964 Tokyo Games.

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ATHENS, Greece — It was an American moment and a Seattle moment, one of the best of the Athens Games, the men's eight-oared shell ending 40 years of Olympic rowing frustration by winning a gold medal yesterday over the rippled waters at the Schinias Rowing Center.

Jason Read celebrated the triumph by diving off the bow of the American boat.

"There is no greater privilege than representing America with all that is going on around the world," said Read, a New Jersey firefighter honored for his rescue work at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.

Nearby, however, the party was just beginning.

The American women, silver medals hanging from their necks after they stubbornly held off the Netherlands in their earlier eight-oared final, rushed down to the dock to congratulate the men.

Given that the men hadn't won a gold in the eight since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the women hadn't medaled since 1984, it was clearly the best single day in U.S. rowing history.

There were hugs and Huskies all around; at one point three members of the University of Washington class of 2002 converged, Matt Deakin from the men's golden eight and Mary Whipple and Anna Mickelson from the women's eight.

"There is a tradition at Washington that freshmen are required to memorize the names of the 1936 UW team that won the Olympics in Berlin," said Deakin, who rowed in the No. 5 seat for the United States.

"I was real proud of them; they were a huge influence on us," Deakin said. "I hope they are proud of us."

At Princeton, N.J., the men and women had trained together for the first time, and their closeness was apparent. After taking a victory ride down the finish of the course, the crew of the women's eight came over to watch the men race.

"I didn't see any other medal-winning women's teams do that," said bow Kate Johnson, of Portland. "Those guys had history going against them, they came in here as underdogs and won going away. It is a great day for U.S. rowing."

It was a spirited and risky triumph for the American men, who in June threw four new faces into the boat whose first race together, believe it or not, was in an Olympic preliminary.

With a strong tailwind, the men set a world record and knocked off the heavily favored Canadians.

In June, the American eight had finished a disappointing fourth at a World Cup race in Lucerne, Switzerland. Meanwhile, their countrymen in a four-oared boat won easily.

Mike Teti, the American coach, pulled the four from the four — Read, Bryan Volpenhein, Beau Hoopman and Dan Beery — and inserted them into the eight.

One of those remaining from the original eight was Deakin.

	DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES The U.S. women's eight rowing team enjoys a group hug after a silver-medal-winning performance yesterday in Athens. The women's squad hadn't medaled in the Olympics since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

"We knew we had something special right off the bat," Deakin said. "It was good from the first race, and it got better."

In yesterday's men's final, the Americans were confident enough to make a big push early in the race at 650 meters, demoralizing the opposition and stealing the race.

"Beau doesn't say much, but then I heard him say 'bow ball,' " said Dan Beery. "That meant we were a length ahead of everybody and the race was only half over."

The day dawned with the wind blowing into the oncoming shells.

"I knew the rowing gods were looking this way," Teti said. "I knew we had the power and the length to win in those conditions."

The U.S. men covered 2,000 meters in 5:42.48, a second ahead of the fast-closing Dutch. Australia won the bronze medal, Greece was fourth, and the favored Canadians, who never recovered from losing the preliminary, fifth.

Four years ago, it was the Americans who were favored but failed miserably.

"I don't think I slept the whole week after that," said Volpenhein, the stroke in Sydney as well as Athens. "Now I have a feeling of freedom. During the award ceremony I didn't think of anything, I just listened to the music. It was peaceful."

With a few hundred meters to go, Deakin said he let himself enjoy the race.

"The noise was unbelievable," he said. "I actually thought about how it reminded me of the Windermere Cup on Opening Day in Seattle."

There were Seattle connections everywhere.

Lianne Nelson, the stroke on the women's team who had taken two years off from rowing to have a baby, went to Lakeside High School before going to college at Princeton University. At 32, she calls herself the grandma of the crew.

Volpenhein, her counterpart on the men's crew, will do a coaching internship at Washington next year.

"I was considering a spot at Princeton when Matt Deakin talked to me about Washington," he said. "I'd been there three times for opening day and had a blast every time."

The two reserve rowers on the men's team, Mike Callahan and Erik Miller, both rowed at Washington. Callahan, in fact, will be next year's UW freshman coach.

Deakin, who grew up in San Francisco and learned to row on Lake Merced south of the city, came into contact with the Washington program at the annual San Diego Crew Regatta.

"I was so impressed with the Huskies that I decided to go to Washington," he said. "Since I've lived in Seattle most of my adult life, I call it home now."

Deakin will finish up an undergraduate degree at Washington next fall.

"He's very gifted aerobically," said his coach at Washington, Bob Ernst. "We've called him the universal donor. He makes anyone who rows with him go faster."

For years, college crews represented the United States in the eight. In 1964, for the first time, the United States used postgraduate rowers, which was also the last time it had won the gold medal.

Indeed, it seemed to be the 40 years of baggage that came from not winning the eight that weighed most heavily on the men.

"There were a lot of people in that boat today, guys from '68 until now," said Teti, "guys who have helped us financially, who have come and talked to us, who have given us so much support."

Deakin knew the history.

"We tried to use it as much as we could for motivation," he said, "but not get stressed out about it."

Deakin said the victory belonged as much to the four who were scratched from the boat as those who rowed in it.

They'd all been dogged by history; now they were making it.

And at Washington, where tradition is everything, Matt Deakin will be the new name for freshmen to remember.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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