Not tired of Olympic rowing history yet?
If not, here is something for you: Did you know that instead of taking five Olympic gold medals in five consecutive Games, Steven Redgrave maybe could have taken six Olympic gold medals at six consecutive Games! How so? Redgrave was actually selected as an 18-year-old rower to go to the 1980 Moscow Games, he says in an interview in the Sport Magazine. However, when the Americans decided to boycott these Games, Great Britain decided to send a smaller group of athletes, so Redgrave was dropped from the team.
Read the interview here.
Six Olympic golds for Steve? A nice idea but, had he raced in 1980, the 18 year old would have had to beat the legendary Pertti Karppinen who is only one of two men to have won Olympic Sculls three Games in a row (1976, 1980, 1984). I do not think that would have happened.
ReplyDeleteTim Koch.
Tim ~ I believe you are right, having seen Karppinen racing in the Nordic countries during the 1970s and the 1980s. However, the Finnish sculler might have had a 'bad day'; I guess, that is always what Peter-Michael Kolbe hoped for...
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