The host of this summer’s 29th Olympic Games may be a world superpower, but Harvard is a global force in another world—competitive rowing.

To add to the 72 Harvard and Radcliffe Olympians who had gone before them, the 2008 Olympics were loaded with one-time oarsmen and women of the College. It was an unusually successful year as well, with three more medals from rowing to add to Harvard’s previous all-time, all-sport tally of 14.

A fairly recent Crimson oarsman, Malcolm Howard ’05, won gold as the five-seat of the Canadian men’s eight—not, perhaps, a result that would surprise followers of Crimson varsity boats past. In Howard’s time at Newell boathouse the varsity went undefeated for three years, garnering national championships in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

He said that the pressure of expectation that this unbeaten streak created helped him deal with the demands of rowing in the most famous athletic event in the world.

“It’s intimidating, obviously—it is the biggest show. But I really think my time at Harvard helped me prepare for that,” Howard said. “Princeton in ’05 got closer and closer—you couldn’t help thinking, what if we lost after two and a half years? That’s a lot of stress, and I think part of that helped me deal with the Olympic stress.”

In the final, Howard’s Canadian eight took the lead early and maintained it to the finish line. They crossed in 5:23.89, with Great Britain following behind with 5:25.11.

“We were able to push the British a lot harder off the line than we expected,” Howard said. “We pushed them so hard we knew they could never come back. We were in front and we knew we were going to hold on, and for the rest of it we were just making sure we didn’t do anything wrong.”

Having won his first gold, he plans to move into the single, having rowed only in pairs and eights in the past.

“It’s a new challenge. It’s hard to keep focused 100 percent if I was doing the same thing,” Howard said.

From the Black and Whites, another ’05 grad also tasted victory. Caryn Davies, who won the silver with the same boat in the 2004 Olympics, stroked the U.S. women’s eight to gold this summer. After a good start, the boat built upon its early lead and maintained pole position in the course, despite a final-500 push by the Dutch. The US boat finished in a time of 6:05.34 to the Netherlands’ 6:07.22.

2004 grads and brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss reached the final of the men’s pair for the US, placing sixth overall, after a tense semi-final in which they moved up from fifth to second position in the last 500, fully earning their spot in the last race with a time of 6:36.65.

“In the semi-finals we started well. We still hadn’t dropped that much by 1600,” Tyler said. “It seemed like some of the guys who were out in front had paid for it and were starting to fall back.”

“We had been doing well in a group all year, and there were some really skilled guys and veterans around us, so we thought we had a business being there,” Cameron added. “But it’s always a surprise when you cross the finish line and are like, ‘Oh wow, I’m in an Olympic final.’”

The final did not go their way. They were not able to move up from their sixth-place position off the line, finishing in 7:05.58 to the winning Australian pair’s 6:37.44.

“We had made a lot of effort to get there and it was just an experience thing,” Tyler said. “We didn’t get off to as great of a start and the field got away a little too much.”

The pair looked back fondly on their time on the Crimson squad, in which Tyler was five-seat and Cameron six-seat in the varsity boat—nicknamed the “God Squad”—their senior year. That eight not only won Eastern Sprints, all its dual races, and the IRAs, but also went to the Lucerne World Cup right before the 2004 Olympics, beating the English and French national boats on the way to the final.

Cameron also praised the Head of the Charles, mentioning the memorable one they rowed in as freshman, the first college race they had ever won.

“We got these prison shirts [for our uniform] and we ended up winning the race,” he said.

The duo have not yet decided whether to keep rowing competitively in the future yet.

“It was a good first Olympics, we’ll work off that. I think we’ll take some time off, stay fit,” Cameron explained. “To make that decision too close to the Olympics or while you’re still so ensconced in the rowing community is probably not a good idea.”

The final Harvard grad to take to the waters in Beijing was another Radcliffe oarswoman, Michelle Guerette ’02. She came from behind to take silver in the women’s single sculls final, having been coached by another Harvard affiliate—lightweight men’s coach Charley Butt.

“I was really impressed by Michelle Guerette’s race the day before [ours],” Howard said. “It was such a great race to watch.”

At the mid-point of the course Guerette was in fifth place, but her last two splits were the fastest of all the competitors, bringing her to within a hair’s breadth of the Bulgarian victor with a time of 7:22.78.

Behind her success lies another story of accomplishment. For Butt, this was not the first time advising an Olympic athlete. He has coached athletes in each of the last four Olympic Games, not to mention several World Championships in between.

J. Adam Holland ’94, who was coached by Butt for the straight pair in the 1996 Olympics, explained his popularity among competitive rowers.

“A lot of the coaches I’ve worked with in my career tend to treat athletes as commodities,” he said. “For Charley it’s a partnership—he wants to hear what you have to say. And he’s willing to explain things­—as an athlete you don’t want to be moving forward on blind faith alone.”

Another member of an Olympic pair who was one of three ex-Crimson oarsmen under Charley’s direction for the 2004 Games, Artour A. Samsonov ’02, agreed.

“Charley has a great personality—he tried to motivate his athletes in addition to being a good coach,” he said. “He was a big part of our achievement and it was great to share it with someone like him.”

Holland also pinpointed Butt’s thorough knowledge of the mechanics and science of rowing as a key to his success with boats.

“We used to refer to him as ‘the mad scientist,’” he said. “He was always looking for a new way to be a better coach, new metaphors, new drills, new techniques, new ways of getting people to row.”

It is an art Butt will exercise once more this weekend, as his lightweights start a new year of competition, and Guerette races with Davies in the championship women’s doubles.

Whatever the outcome of this regatta, however, there can be no doubt that, for the time being Harvard is on top of the rowing world.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.