We continue Bagg’s “Revenge of the Jock-Nerds” series (the last series of Season Three!), with David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, which tells the story of four men competing for the single solo sculling spot on the 1984 Olympic team. Halberstam, who usually worked on more popular sports and in bigger political arenas, offers a nuanced glimpse into the small, hermetic, oral world of American rowing, where athletes compete in a sport where “the rewards cannot justify the efforts.”
The first half of the book introduces our four principals, the Olympic and Harvard Head Coach Harry Parker, and takes us right to the brink of the Olympic Trials. Halberstam’s prose is understated, but that restraint belies the fierce world of amateur American rowing. What is Halbertstam’s tone about these athletes and the world in which they try to survive?
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