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John Strotbeck III (born June 19, 1957) is an American rower, who rowed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, and was elected the Olympic team captain in the latter. His company, Boathouse Sports, is a manufacturer of custom team athletic apparel made in the United States. Strotbeck currently lives in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with his wife Stephanie and son Max. [1]
Strotbeck was born in 1957 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. [2] Growing up on the sandy beaches of the South Jersey Shore certainly had an effect on a young John Strotbeck. Like many who grew up in Margate, New Jersey, Strotbeck immersed himself in the ocean culture; working summers as a life guard when not in school and spending the rest of his time rowing and surfing in big waves provided by the Atlantic Ocean.
Strotbeck started to row competitively in his senior year of high school after spending his first years playing football and wrestling. His talent on the water spoke for itself and earned Strotbeck a spot on Marietta College's rowing team his freshman year. His drive kept him at the top throughout college.
Though small for a world-class rower – standing 6'2" and weighing 180 pounds – Strotbeck cycled through the power seats of the boat. His advantage over the competition was his tremendous efficiency and ability to move a boat fast.
After taking a brief hiatus, Strotbeck returned to the world of competitive rowing after moving to Philadelphia in 1981. Philadelphia is a haven for rowers as the city offered access to world-class coaches, rowing equipment, and the Schuylkill River, which houses one of the largest regattas in the country and historic Boathouse Row.
After training intensely throughout the winter of 1983, Strotbeck made the 1983 Pan Am team rowing for the Vesper Boat Club. Assuming he would not make it through the first seat race, Pan Am Coach John Bannan consented to allow Strotbeck to try out. After winning the first seat race, and many more after, Bannan relented on his initial position and gave Strotbeck a seat in the Pan Am boat. Strotbeck's crew placed second in the 1983 Pan American Games earning the team a silver medal.
Prior to the 1984 Olympic games, the US Rowing team's coaching philosophy had been focused on recruiting from traditionally established schools for the Olympic and World Games. There was initially no interest in finding a spot on the team for Strotbeck who had few competitive accolades and hailed from Marietta College. After preliminary testing in Princeton, Strotbeck was told he would not make the 1984 Olympic team. However, US Rowing, the sports governing body, looked outside the United States for the coach of Team 1984, in order to achieve better performance. Kris Korzenowski, a Polish expatriate coaching the Italian team, was hired as the 1984 Olympic Rowing Team's head coach. Because Korzenowski was not predisposed to recruiting from the predominant American rowing schools, Strotbeck found himself in the crew of the 1984 US Olympic Rowing team. Strotbeck competed over the next six years for the US National team at the 1988 Olympics, World Championships, Pan Ams and numerous European regattas.
Strotbeck's boat placed sixth in 1984 in the coxless pair, where he partnered with Dave De Ruff. [3]
Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars, one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
Harry Lambert Parker was the head coach of the Harvard varsity rowing program (1963–2013). He also represented the United States in the single scull at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
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Dudley Leonard Storey was a New Zealand rower who won two Olympic medals.
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University of London Boat Club is the rowing club for the University of London and its member institutions, many of which also have their own boat clubs. The club has its boathouse on the Thames in Chiswick, London, UK. It is a designated High-Performance Programme funded by British Rowing.
The Vesper Boat Club is an amateur rowing club located at #10 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1865 as the Washington Barge Club, the club's name was changed to Vesper Boat Club in 1870.
The College Boat Club of the University of Pennsylvania is the rowing program for University of Pennsylvania Rowing, which is located in the Burk-Bergman Boathouse at #11 Boathouse Row on the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its membership consists entirely of past and present rowers of the University of Pennsylvania.
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John Albert "Monster" Mathews is an American former competitive rower, U.S. Olympian and Pan American. He was a member of the 1975 World Championship Team to Nottingham, England, where he placed fifth in the coxed pair. Mathews was also a member of the U.S. Olympic Team competing in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal in the men's coxed pair event.
Paul Marshall Guest is an Australian former representative rower, a family law barrister and Queen's Counsel who spent ten years as a judge on the bench of the Family Court of Australia, and an art philanthropist.
Roger Arthur Ninham was an Australian Olympian stillwater rower, a surfboat rower and surfcraft boat builder. As a stillwater rower he was a six-time national champion across both sculling and sweep-oared boats and competed at two Olympic Games.
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The 1972 New Zealand eight was a team of Olympic gold medallists in rowing from New Zealand, having previously won the 1971 European Rowing Championships. At the time, the eight was regarded as the blue ribbon class of rowing, and the sport still had amateur-status in New Zealand, unlike many other nations competing in rowing. After a disappointing Olympic performance at the 1968 Summer Olympics by the New Zealand eight, national selectors Rusty Robertson, Don Rowlands, and Fred Strachan were tasked with assembling a new crew. Robertson was also the team's coach. The next time a New Zealand eight competed was at the 1970 World Rowing Championships, where they came third. The team was once again significantly changed for the next rowing season, with the 1971 edition of the European Rowing Championships and other international regattas beforehand seen as the ultimate test for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The team put up an impressive performance, beat the highly favoured East German eight, and became European champion; at the time the win was regarded as holding world championship status. No further changes were made to the team, not even their seating position, for the 1972 season. Despite a shoe-string budget, financial constraints, and all rowers working part-time, the 1971 success was repeated and the team won Olympic gold in Munich. The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Avery Brundage, was a zealous advocate of amateurism; he was so impressed by the New Zealand performance that he insisted on handing out the gold medals himself. During the medal ceremony, much to almost everybody's surprise, "God Defend New Zealand" was played instead of the national anthem, "God Save the Queen". It was the impetus for a campaign to make "God Defend New Zealand" the New Zealand anthem, and in 1977 it was gazetted as having equal status to the traditional anthem.
Pamela Westendorf is an Australian former representative rower. She won twenty-three Australian national championships, was an Olympian, represented at five World Championships over a twelve-year period and won a silver medal at the 1990 World Rowing Championships.
Ian F. Luxford is an Australian former representative rower. He was a three time Australian champion who represented at world championships and competed in the men's coxless pair event at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
James Lowe is an Australian former Olympic representative rower. He was a four time national champion, represented twice at World Rowing Championships and competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics and the 1984 Summer Olympics.
