Rowing Towards Moscow?

John MacEachern and Charlie Altekruse don't like to think about the possibility of an Olympic boycott. The Crimson oarsmen are among 32 selected last December by Harry Parker, coach of the Olympic squad, to be on a pre-Olympic team. The final 14 man team will be chosen by Parker in mid-May.

Altekruse is the captain of this year's varsity and a member of the '79 U.S. national squad. MacEachern almost made the '79 national team, Parker said, and the junior is considered one of the strongest of the Crimson oarsmen.

Parker is also the Harvard coach and although he cites the two six-foot-three blondes as "among the very best rowers in the country," he gives no guarantees they will make the team.

For MacEachern and Altekruse the months until the final selection mean double workouts three days a week, one at 6:30 a.m. with the pre-Olympic squad and again in the afternoon with the Harvard heavies. Three days of the week they will practice with the Harvard team.

All the workouts throw life out of balance--"some days all I want to do is sleep," MacEachern says. Altekruse echoes his thoughts. At the moment he is worried about meeting the March 20 deadline for his thesis; a study of the works of the German author Erich Remarque. "Give me three weeks and I'll be fine," he says with a smile.

The winter workouts mean rowing in the tanks, a task far less pleasant than rowing on the open water.

For both, the incentive is participation in the Moscow games. "I want to row in an Olympics, I still believe they're on, I just have to," MacEachern says.

Those who call for a boycott don't understand the training and sacrifice of the athletes, the blonde junior explains.

For Altekruse the sacrifices are extra practices and less time for school work and sleep. The real sacrifices, MacEachern says, are for the 25 members of the squad who are non-collegians.

"A boycott will destroy the willingness of athletes to make sacrifices. It'll just destroy the credibility of the games," Altekruse adds.

For both, the school season will always be there to fall back on but they agree that the Olympics is a dream that is frustratingly close.

Each would consider training four more years if there was a boycott. However it would depend on where he was and if he could train properly. "Four years of working would be a real sacrifice," Altekruse adds.

Whereas the minds of the oarsmen are on the Olympics, Coach Parker thinks in terms of the European summer regattas for the 14 man team. "I still have a hope for Moscow but it's pretty slim," he says.

"The European regattas would be fun," Altekruse says "but they couldn't be a replacement. It just wouldn't be the Olympics."