Vicarious Olympics and Fat Bastards... - 12/08/08

So, I'm skimming through old email yesterday and see a message from my University Alumni Association talking about Yalies in the Olympics this year. Most of them are from class years that were dates in Science Fiction when I was in college in the last century. But one of them was a name I recognized.

This is a picture of the British Mens' Heavyweight Eight. The cruised to a first place finish in their qualifying heat against China, Germany and former reining champions, the US.

Anyway, the number 5 man (third clearly visible head from the left) is a Yale Alumnus named Josh West.

This is a picture of my Heavyweight Eight in 1996 and the Eastern Sprints Championship regatta in Worcester, Mass.

He and I were pair partners in the bow of the boat. The funny thing is that, as a sophomore, Josh was gigantic and a good rower. But certainly not someone you would have imagined in the Olympics. But then the summer after his sophomore year (I think, I had graduated by then), he underwent some surgery in his knee. Think Superman getting some subcutaneous krytonite removed; he became an unstoppable force rowing for Yale Varsity and going on to be one of the tallest rowers ever to row in the Oxford/Cambridge boatrace, and of course, he's now gone on to the Olympics.

And I of course am becoming a fat cartoonist waxing poetic about glory days... Ah well, I can always draw pictures about it...

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