Sing (Spirituality of Sport
) recounts the 1920 Olympics when the American crew team beat the British, who dominated the sport until then. Thoroughly researched and documented, the book explores the rise of the modern Olympic games and the history of rowing and the life of coach Dick Glendon—all provide context for the sport and its culture. In the vein of Wayne Coffey's The Boys of Winter
, about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, Sing creates a David vs. Goliath scenario made possible by an unconventional coach, who revolutionized the sport. Unfortunately, Sing's prose can be cumbersome (“A revealing and stunningly important article by Dr. Walter Peet, past coach of Columbia, proceeded to dissect and analyze the empirical thinking of Glendon that in a nutshell is a synopsis of the Glendon stroke, which is the basis of the newly found and tried American Orthodoxy”), but crew fans will appreciate how triumph in a sport lifts a nation. Photos. (July)
