A Rowing Article In The New Yorker, 1996

If you would like to read about the sport of rowing, nowadays you are referred to a few printed rowing magazines, like the beautiful Rowing & Regatta and Rowing News (which just the other day arrived in the mail with a new lay-out which did not impress me at all), and, if you know any Swedish, the eminent Svensk Rodd, which my dear friend Per Ekström is still the captain of, after 20 years at the helm – bravo, old boy, and congratulations!

There used to be two nice rowing magazines published in Australia and New Zealand, but I am not sure if they still exist. Of course, among present publications, let us not forget Rachel Quarrell’s and Christopher Dodd’s brilliant e-magazine Rowing Voice, and FISA’s e-newsletter/magazine. And, of course, in Great Britain you can read about rowing in the big newspapers, at least in and around the time of the Boat Race and the Henley Royal Regatta.

However, other sports receive coverage in non-sport magazines, it does not matter if it is a literary or cultural magazine, there will quite often be a feature article about baseball, football/soccer, basketball, cricket, or another big sport. But rowing, not very likely.

One of the magazines that I really like in America is The New Yorker. In the 1930s, for the annual Harvard-Yale Regatta, for a few years, there was always rowing on the cover. The New Yorker frequently has well-written articles about different sports. Although, I have no interest what so ever in the sport the article is about, I read it because it is splendidly written. Way back when, the magazine had some articles or short pieces published about rowing, however, the last time was in July 1996! Then John Seabrook, a staff writer for the magazine, had a good article about Steve Redgrave, when he still had a couple of Olympic gold medals to go and he was still just a commoner.

As a matter of fact, the article is available on the web, and you can read it by clicking here. Enjoy!