“During their college years the oarsmen put in terribly long hours often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for pre-class practices. Both physically and psychologically, they were separated from their classmates….In many ways they were like combat veterans coming back from a small, bitter, and distant war, able to talk only to other veterans.”
– David Halberstam, The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal.
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