Though the teenager had never once sat in a racing shell, Archie MacKinnon, a freshman electrical engineering student, tried out for the varsity rowing team when he arrived on campus.
asserted
he → sit → campus
He later said he “thought it would be easy to make” the team, guided by Frank Read, the University of British Columbia’s legendary coach.
asserted
it → say → Columbia
As it turned out, he failed to win a spot among the coxed eights, the sport’s glamour boat.
asserted
he → turn → eights
He and three other cuts were encouraged to continue as spares with the possibility one or two might be used as a substitute in case of illness or injury.
uncertain
one → encourage → illness
The unheralded youths trained in a shell for four without a coxswain.
asserted
youths → train → coxswain
A year later, the novices shocked the sporting world by winning a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Australia.
asserted
novices → shock → Australia
The first-ever Olympic rowing championship for Canada helped launch a golden age for the sport on the West Coast, the effects of which linger to this day.
asserted
effects → help → day
Mr. MacKinnon, who has died at the age of 89, was the last surviving member of a student crew forever remembered in lore as the Cinderella Four.
“They are the pioneering Olympic champions of Canadian rowing, one of the most important crews ever assembled in our country’s history,” said Jason Beck, curator of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, who is completing a book on the province’s rowers from that era.
asserted
who → die → era
“As the bowman, he was responsible for steering the shell straight with his foot while stroking his oar in time with his crewmates for 2,000 metres at a pace that would bury most normal humans.”
asserted
that → steer → humans
Archibald Alan MacKinnon, who carried the name of his paternal grandfather, was born on Jan. 13, 1937, in Cranbrook, a small city in British Columbia’s East Kootenays region.
asserted
who → carry → region
He was the first of two sons born to the former Ivy Elsie Marshall and Charles Eric MacKinnon, an engineering graduate who took over the family’s foundry.
asserted
who → bear → foundry
The father insisted his son study at the University of Toronto.
asserted
son → insist → Toronto
A lean but muscular athlete, Archie, who stood six-foot-two (1.88 metres) and weighed 176 pounds (79.8 kilograms), instead chose Vancouver, where Mr. Read’s program showed great promise with an eights boat representing the university and the Vancouver Rowing Club.
asserted
program → stand → university
The coach’s eights had upset a heavily favoured Thames Rowing Club on the Vedder Canal in B.C.’s Fraser Valley to claim the gold medal at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
uncertain
eights → upset → Games
That unexpected victory led Prince Philip, who was in attendance, to invite them to the famed Henley Royal Regatta in England the following year.
asserted
who → lead → England
The Canadians defeated the Soviets before narrowly losing the 1955 Grand Challenge Cup to an American crew.
asserted
Canadians → defeat → crew
The coach was a hard-nosed, tongue-lashing disciplinarian, a hotelier accustomed to barking orders to his staff.
asserted
coach → lash → staff
The rowers trained along Vancouver’s working waterfront, where driftwood and freighters were occasional hazards.
asserted
driftwood → train → waterfront
Without a coxswain, it was Mr. MacKinnon’s duty in the bow to steer and avoid debris.
asserted
it → steer → debris
“It was a tremendous strain on him during our training sessions avoiding all the logs and drift in Coal Harbour,” assistant coach John Warren told a reporter in 1956.
asserted
Warren → avoid → 1956
Mr. Read only offered instruction to the eights boat, so those in the four boat often had to quickly row over to get within earshot.
asserted
those → offer → earshot
Gruelling two-hour sessions on the water beginning at dawn in even the wettest weather were followed by studies on campus, and further rowing in the evening.
asserted
sessions → begin → evening
The four lived in spartan quarters at the rowing club.
asserted
four → live → club
The men eschewed dating and a social life to dedicate themselves to training.
asserted
men → eschew → training
In summer, the four young men worked as labourers, handling jackhammers and wielding axes to help cut a path through rugged terrain for a pipeline.
asserted
men → work → pipeline
The crew showed such dedication to their training that Mr. Read decided to bring them along to the Canadian Olympic rowing trials in 1956.
asserted
Read → show → 1956
“They have worked terribly hard for months,” the coach said.
asserted
coach → work → months
When the unknown quartet arrived at the Royal Canadian Henley course at Port Dalhousie, Ont., an Ontario coach haughtily told Mr. MacKinnon not to interfere with the undefeated fours from the Brockville Rowing Club.
asserted
coach → arrive → Club
After the western upstarts humiliated the favourites by 10 lengths, Mr. MacKinnon sought out the rival coach to ask, “Did we give them enough space?”
asserted
we → humiliate → space
In the final, the Vancouver boat crushed their opponents, completing the 2,000-metre course in 6 minutes, 23.1 seconds, nearly 13 seconds faster than the Olympic record set in 1928 by a British foursome.
asserted
boat → crush → foursome
(One of those British rowers, John Lander, had been in Hong Kong on business when the Japanese invaded in 1941.
asserted
Japanese → invade → 1941
He immediately volunteered and was killed in action on Christmas Day, the final day of the Battle of Hong Kong.
asserted
He → volunteer → Kong
In an earlier heat, the Vancouver four had performed even better, besting the Olympic mark by an astonishing 31 seconds in what was their first competitive race in Eastern Canada.
asserted
what → perform → Canada
Both the fours and eights qualified for the Olympics to be held in Melbourne four months later.
asserted
Olympics → qualify → Melbourne
But the success of the four freshmen – Don Arnold at stroke, Walter d’Hondt at No. 3, Lorne Loomer at No. 2, and Mr. MacKinnon at bow – meant funds had to be raised to cover the cost of sending them overseas.
asserted
funds → mean → them
A last-minute appeal for money, led by popular Vancouver mayor Fred Hume, raised $6,000.
asserted
appeal → lead → 6,000
The Olympic regatta was held on windswept Lake Wendouree, a man-made basin about 120 kilometres west of the host city.
asserted
regatta → hold → city
The Canadian crew easily advanced to the finals only to have disaster strike as they washed out on their first stroke, a rookie mistake in which the oars pop out of the water before completing a stroke.
asserted
oars → advance → stroke
They needed to call on their superb conditioning.
asserted
They → need → conditioning
They hunted down the other boats with each stroke, Mr. Arnold calling for a series of “hard 10s,” reaching a peak rate of 36 strokes a minute at the midway point when they overtook the French to grab the lead.
asserted
they → hunt → lead
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
