That’s Outside My Boat

Don’t Worry About the Wind

In 1987, the rowing World Championships took place offshore near Copenhagen, a difficult rowing venue because of its notoriously heavy winds. A line of tall trees protects the rowers in lane one from the usual gale, but wide-open lane six takes the brunt of its force. In that outside lane, rowers must battle not only the heavy winds, but the big waves that the wind creates.

The day of the finals, the wind whipped up 18-inch waves at the starting line. In the next-to-last race, the Dutch women’s team had the bad luck to draw lane six. To protest, they quit rowing with only 300 meters to go, yelled at the officials and gestured angrily at the TV cameras.

The US women’s team drew lane six for the finals, but didn’t protest. Despite the treacherous position and despite being seriously outsized by the strong Soviet and East German rowing teams, the US women held first place after 500 meters. They finished second, behind the Romanians, who edged them out near the end of the race.

After the race, US crew members said they hadn’t focused on the heavy winds or the waves. Instead, they locked their attention on Betsy, their coxswain...