I was confused by how Coach Ulbrickson chose his varsity 8, and even more so by the fact that the USA team was by default comprised of the winning boat from just one race. I realize that the success of a crew is dependent upon the team's ability to work together as one, and it's not as simple as selecting the best 8 individual rowers in a school---or nation, in the case of the Olympics. However, I thought the author could have done a better job of explaining whether Ulbrickson's decision to keep Joe's boat almost constant through 4 years was unusual for that time.
Also, with the exceptional talent that was also present on the 1936 Cal crew, was there any possibility of Ulbrickson taking any Cal rowers on the Olympic team? At what point in history did the US Olympic crew start being comprised of rowers from more than one school/club?
I assume that another issue, besides team cohesion, is the extremely high financial and logistical cost of rowing. For example, unlike in other sports, a crew coach doesn't have the luxury of subbing a person into a match for a few minutes to see how they perform. I guess that once a boat is shown to perform well in a race, it's easier to just keep those same rowers than try to pick and choose from a larger selection, even at the cost of excluding more talented or stronger individuals.
Also, with the exceptional talent that was also present on the 1936 Cal crew, was there any possibility of Ulbrickson taking any Cal rowers on the Olympic team? At what point in history did the US Olympic crew start being comprised of rowers from more than one school/club?
I assume that another issue, besides team cohesion, is the extremely high financial and logistical cost of rowing. For example, unlike in other sports, a crew coach doesn't have the luxury of subbing a person into a match for a few minutes to see how they perform. I guess that once a boat is shown to perform well in a race, it's easier to just keep those same rowers than try to pick and choose from a larger selection, even at the cost of excluding more talented or stronger individuals.