Before the Olympics U.S. Rowing Men’s 8 coach Mike Teti summed up the two types of Olympians: “I know the difference between third and fourth place and it’s profoundly different.”
Teti, a three-time Olympian and five-time coach, entered London having won and lost medals in previous Games.
“There’s two types of athletes to go to the Olympics, those that come home with medals and those that don’t,” said the West Philly native.
Unfortunately Teti’s team -- with Cinnaminson, N.J. native and Drexel University grad Steve Kasprzyk on board -- that difference between being Olympic medalist and not was just three-tenths of a second. The U.S. Men’s 8 used a late surge over the final 500 meters to close from sixth to fourth place but they were just beat out at the line as America crossed to stripe at 5:51.48 to Britain’s 5:51.18.
Germany won the gold with 5:48.75 with Canada using a late surge to finish second with a time of 5:49.98.
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The race was one of the more competitive of the Olympics with all six boats finishing within three seconds of each other.
