Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Practice for the Non-Olympics...

The Dour Dane

With University of Washington winning the Olympic eights at the 1936 Berlin Games - so beautifully told by Daniel James Brown in The Boys in the Boat - when it was time to prepare for the 1940 Olympic Games, which were going to be held in Tokyo, the Huskies' coach Al Ulbrickson (above) was ready to fight to represent the USA in the eights again. Below is a 1939 film showing him 'inspecting' his oarsmen before they go out for practice, according to the voice on the newsreel, for the coming Olympics.



As we know, the 1940 Games were relocated to Helsinki due to the War, but soon the Finnish capital had to be given up, too, as Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union in 1939. The 1944 Olympic Games in London were thereafter cancelled.

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