The boys in the boat

When I was a university student of faculty of dentistry, I belonged to the rowing club. When I was 4th grade, our crew, coxed four, won a race in Japan and selected as a representative of Japan for university students Olympic, held in Italy in 1982. My position was number 3, role of engine in coxed four. We got 4th place in the final heat of 2000m, failed to get medals. After oarsman’s era, I coached younger generation for 10 years. I learned not only skills of rowing and coaching, but also leadership. I grew good relationship with the team mates, all are dentists or doctors now, and still have meeting with them, enjoying talking and drinking occasionally. “The boys in the boat”, describing Washington university crew winning gold in Berlin Olympic, is the book of rowing I encountered since “True Blue” dealing with the story of Oxford university crew’s turmoil and winning the boat race in the end. It was a really page turner. I was moved to know how gung-ho the students were in those days namely Great depression, paying tuition by themselves through working in a quarry or a night pub after home work. The book gives energy to live.