Issue 92 - September/October 1996

Taking wing in Graceland

Harsh words kicked off the Olympic Regatta, and harsh things were aimed at people who didn't live up to expectations. Mike Sweeney, Technical Delegate for FISA, told the first team managers meeting:

'This is the Olympics. This should be a showcase not only for the sportsmen and women of the world but also for the venue organisation.'

He was expressing FISA's 'anger and disappointment' at the chaotic transport situation on the 55-mile route between the Olympic Village and Lake Lanier. Transport difficulties threatened to undermine the regatta - late buses, no-show buses, drivers who didn't know the way, drivers who turned around because they were frightened on the freeway. Rowers of several nationalities demonstrated at the village transportation centre more than once and succeeded in hijacking buses destined for other venues, so that after the women's repechage, so disastrous for Britain, observers were saying that if they hadn't spent so much time hijacking buses they wouldn't have let Bill Mason down.

The buses got better, but mistrust of the system got to the athletes, many of whom were moved to hotels or houses in the area of the lake, and the media, some of whom missed the events they'd crossed the world to see. Peter Haining summed it up when he said:

'I've spent 28 hours in buses to race for 27 minutes. It's not really on.'

When the American women's eight, hot favourites for gold, failed to get a medal, an American official said:

'It seemed more important to them whether their relatives had tickets for the West side or the public seating on the East side than whether they got their act together on the water.'

Happily, however, graciousness was a quality available by the bucketful at Lake Lanier. Silken Laumann, who will never be an Olympic champion after being out-sculled by 'Chocodotovich':

'I wouldn't change my Olympic experiences for the world. The medals get put in a drawer and you forget about them. The things you take from these events are the memories. I learned so much about myself competing in these events that I can go out from here knowing that I came out a better person.'

Xeno Muller after winning the singles:

'Thomas Lange was and still is my idol. He's had a really difficult schooling in Germany but he's made it here. He gave me really warm congratulations. It was very nice.'

Steve Redgrave after winning his fourth Olympic gold:

'I still wish Thomas Lange had won his race. I was sitting in doping, praying for him to win, because he missed out on one Olympics when his country wouldn't let him row. I feel really sorry for him.'

Lange didn't start in 1984 when East Germany joined the Soviet boycott. He won the singles in 1988 and 1992 but ended here with the bronze behind Muller and Porter of Canada. Lange was half of the double who pipped Redgrave and Adam Clift at the world junior championships in 1980. Himself, he was dignified in defeat. He said:

'I did not get a very good start. After a while I noticed that Xeno was pulling away from me, and I just couldn't respond. Redgrave is the finest rower I have ever met. He definitely deserves all of his medals. I am not sure about me. But it is kind of Steve to say those things.'

The setting added to sport-smanship which graced the regatta. The shuttle bus from Sherwood Plaza afforded a magnificent view from the finish to the start, the lanes resting between gently-wooded slopes. Tents were white and clean and completely free of the vending junk of down-town Atlanta. Spectators had seats on a huge temporary floating grandstand with scoreboards for all to see. Unusually for an Olympic organising committee, rowers were heavily involved in the organisation under former US international Mara Keggi, venue competition manager.

The things that didn't live up to expectations - technology, transport - were outside her control. For the first few days it was unbearably hot, but this didn't seem to bother the athletes, who said they could enjoy some breeze on the water while they were sweating it off.

Great athletes in great races produced a good spread of medals. Xeno Muller was a picture as he came through the field, completing his first 500 metres in 1:39.79 in fourth place and his last in an incredible 1:36.56 to take him past Canada's Derek Porter who had led until then. Porter was strained, while a grin from ear-to-ear spread across Xeno's face as he flew.

'I can't believe I went 1:36 in the last 500 metres,' he said. 'I just can't believe it. Something just gave me wings.'

'It was good to give the flag a chance to go up the pole. That's the first time I've heard the national anthem played out that long. We have rather a nice anthem, by the way.'

The look on the faces of Laumann and Yekaterina Khodotovich was quite different. The Belarussian, shy, 1.85 metres tall, blond, curly 24-year-old from Osecheno, product of the old Soviet recruiting system and junior champion in 1990, simply powered her way over the course. Laumann had taken the lead at 1000 metres but lost it again, then retook it after the 1500 metre mark while gritting her teeth. But 'Choco' never flinched and came home three seconds in front. Such a shame that no TV crew from Belarus was there to talk to her on the interview dock.

Both eights finals sent the home crowd into shell shock. How could they go away empty-handed after days of wall-to-wall Americans clogging up the screens with swimming, gymnastics, track golds? But in the men's race the Dutch fulfiled all the promise of a stunning season and their build-up for several years. The Germans revived from a disastrous year to take silver while the Russians and Canadians fought for the third slot, settled in Russia's favour. Mike Spracklen's fancied American eight never had a look-in. The American women clearly thought they had sown up this event when they battered their way to an outright win in the preliminary heats. They were in third position briefly in the final, but Romania led from start to finish, and Canada and Belarus took the other medals.

Australia came out on top with ten out of 13 crews in finals, two golds, a silver and three bronzes. The reconstituted 'Awesome Foursome' won a thrilling coxless fours final in which positions changed frequently behind them and the final charge was too close to call. Megal Still and Kate Slatter led the women's pairs all the way and pushed favourites Missy Schwen and Karen Kraft of the US to the silver.

Germany rank second in the medal table, staying supreme in sculling with the 1992 men's Olympic champions successfully defending their quad title having returned the 1994 world champion single sculler Andre Willms to the stroke seat. The crew led all the way, with the Americans taking a popular silver medal. The women went into the lead after 500 metres and continued the long domicile of quad titles in Germany.

Switzerland and Romania were the other countries who won two gold medals - the Swiss with Muller and the Gier brothers in the lightweight doubles, and Romania with the women's eight and the lightweight women's double. Michael and Markus Gier brought a poor season to a brilliant conclusion, while Constanta Burcica and Camelia Macoiviciuc led all the way against the hot pursuit of the US's Teresa Bell and Lindsay Burns. The favourites, Canada's Colleen Miller and Wenby Wiebe, won the B final.

Lightweight events were in the Olympics for the first time, and the times that they recorded, although not strictly comparable because of variations in conditions, point to a narrowing gap between them and heavyweights. The Danes, world silver medalists last year, sowed up the Olympic men's lightweight four's title. Italy's 1995 world championship crew were in the B final, a statistic which helped push the country which was top of the Olympic event medal table at last year's worlds down to ninth in Atlanta. They did win the men's double sculls, however. Davide Tizzano and the youngest Abbagnale brother, Agostino, both Olympic champions from the 1988 quad, took it from the front.

The women's double was won by the favourites Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle of Canada. This was their third Olympic title, having won the pairs in 1992 and been members of the gold medal eight in that year. They were attempting two events for the second time, being in the quad which took bronze behind Germany and Ukraine. A good tilt at uniquely becoming Olympic champions in four boat classes. Still, three plus a bronze in the fourth ain't half bad.

© Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1996.