Keeping The Olympics In The Family

Will Miller Photo: US Rowing

Although, I am, as the editor of HTBS, following the qualification races for the Olympic rowing with great interest, I have decided that HTBS should stay away from commenting on who is going, or not going, to this year’s Olympic rowing regatta. There are other rowing websites doing a good job analysing the crews. However, in today’s USA Today is a nice interview with one of the crew members in the American men’s eight, Will Miller, 28. The American eight qualified late to the Olympics as they did not manage to take a medal at last year’s World Championships in Bled. But it went swimmingly well in Lucerne a week ago for the American eight, so Will and his crew mates will pack their bags and get ready for London.

The reason I cannot pass up this story about Will in USA Today is simply that his father is the well-known rowing historian Bill Miller of Duxbury, Massachusetts. And to throw in some ‘rowing history’ in this, Bill Senior is an Olympian from the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich where Bill rowed in Vesper B.C.’s coxless four. Read the USA Today article here.

The Millers are now joining the list of fathers and sons (are there any fathers/mothers and daughters on this list?) who have rowed at the Olympics. To mention a few on that list: the Beresfords, the Nickallses, the Burnells, the Kellys, and the Svenssons.