WITH the flame burning once again in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, our minds return, almost involuntarily, to those moments from previous Games that have stirred the emotions and remain indelible memories even years after the event. Many of these occasions have become embedded in the collective psyche of the nation.
There was the mastery of David Hemery as he won the 400 metres hurdles in 1968, breaking the world record with a performance that, even now, would get him in the Great Britain team. Then there was the scream of triumph of Mary Peters as she celebrated her pentathlon victory in Munich four years later.
There were the breaststroke victories of David Wilkie, Duncan Goodhew and Adrian Moorhouse, as well as the middle-distance rivalry of Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. Few will forget the decathlon supremacy of Daley Thompson and the triple jump victory of Jonathan Edwards.
However, if one has to pick one special image, not only in the Olympics but perhaps in the history of British sport, it is that of the sunny morning on Penrith Lake, Sydney, four years ago. Matthew Pinsent is clambering along a boat to embrace Steve Redgrave, who has just won his fifth successive Olympic gold medal, a unique feat by any endurance athlete in the history of the Games.
However often this performance has been remembered, however often it has been shown on television, the story of the crew has never been told with such acute sensitivity as in Four Men in a Boat. Rory Ross has slanted the focus of the book through the eyes of Tim Foster, his co- author and a member of that crew, while still achieving some detachment by blending his views with those of other people close to the four.
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Where the book excels is in capturing the atmosphere of the sport and the competition to get into winning crews. Rowers are initially often rivals to get selected for boats, then subsequently companions through all the hours of training and racing. This tension is always evident.
One is constantly aware of the small difference between supreme athletic performance and physical breakdown. Foster underwent a back operation in the winter of 1998 and recognised how self-pitying he had become when he watched an old woman walk across a pedestrian crossing.
Ed Coode was preferred to Foster in the four for the 1999 World Championships. The book graphically records the resentment of Foster as he tries to come to terms with this decision and his subsequent relief at being chosen for the Games. There was also his worry that his back might not stand up to the pressures of racing in Sydney and even a late scare just before the final.
There is a graphic portrayal of the team-talk before the final by Jürgen Grobler, when his Teutonic accent became more and more pronounced as he became increasingly worked up. The book states: “Whenever he got excited, he sounded like a bear trying to chew a wasp.”
The crew survived several problems: from Redgrave’s diabetes to James Cracknell breaking up with his girlfriend. However, their tribulations strengthened not weakened their resolve, as this book graphically recounts.