In “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown, the protagonist, Joe Rantz, was my hero from the first page. Dressed in a ragged sweater and unpressed trousers, he stood with the rest of the rowing crew at the University of Washington in 1933. Standing beside other young men dressed in stunning overcoats, hats, and tailored trousers, he was very aware of how different he was from his Ivy League counterparts.
There were others like him who were the sons of fishermen, loggers, and farmers. These young men were dedicated to proving they were as capable as others of enduring the training required to make the eight-man rowing team that would eventually win the 1936 medal in rowing at Hitler’s 1936 Olympics.
The book goes into detail about the training required to sail the “Husky Skipper,” a racing shell made of cedar and spruce. It describes the coaches who encouraged the young men and the horrendous jobs the young men worked to scrounge up enough money to make one more year’s tuition. Remember, this was the Depression.
The mathematics of rowing is pretty fascinating, and it is explained in-depth in this book. The laws of physics that all crew coaches must adhere to indicate that the speed of a racing shell is determined by the speed of the combined strokes of the oars and the number of strokes the crew takes each minute.
There is more information in this book, but the real story is eight young men won the Olympics in 1933. I heartily recommend this book.