Beijing, China – Mercyhurst men’s and women’s rowing coach Adrian Spracklen has been involved with the sport of rowing basically since the day he was born. He was a member of the British National Team and guided Mercyhurst to a women’s rowing national championship in 2004. His father, Mike Spracklen, is the Canadian National Team coach and has been coaching international crews since 1975. Mike Spracklen recently guided Canada to a gold medal in the men’s heavyweight eight and a silver medal in the men’s pairs.
While the country struggled to reach the medal podium early in the 2008 Olympic Games, the pairs silver was the first medal of the Olympics for Team Canada. And for the men’s eight, the gold medal broke a curse of sorts.
No world championship crew had been able to capture Olympic gold the following year since 1980 – the pressure seemed to be too much for the numerous crews who had tried to complete that feat. But Spracklen’s crew broke that curse in dominating fashion, jumping out to a quick lead and never relinquishing.
Spracklen has now led a crew to either a gold or silver medal in every Olympics since 1976.