The Blog in the Boat by Luke Stevens

Warning! The whole blog post is spoilers!

Hello readers, I hope everyone is having a swell day. Today I am writing to you all about the nonfiction story, The Boys in the Boat. The Boys in the Boat is a book following Joe Rantz, a member of the University of Washington’s rowing team, and their run to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Joe had a very rough life as a child, due to the fact that his mother died when he was a toddler, a fire burned his new house to the ground, and his parents ditched him when he was a young teenager. He struggled to make it through college without dropping out due to a lack of money, and often his favorite part of the day was his extracurricular: Crew, also known as rowing.

Joe was a part of an amazing freshman crew team. At this time the national championship of rowing was held in Poughkeepsie, New York. His Washington team, led by coach Tom Bolles, won by a fair share against the best schools in the country, such as California, their rival, and Harvard. 

Joe kept rowing for two more years and his junior year was the year the 1936 Berlin Olympic time trials were held. Before that, Joe and his team, now on varsity, won their rival match against California (the 1932 Olympic gold medalists) and again at Poughkeepsie, then took the time trial victory in the name of Washington. After last-minute fundraisers to get the boys to Berlin, they were off to Europe.

All of you should know at this time, Germans were preparing to invade their neighboring countries. This didn’t stop them from spending luxurious amounts of money on the Olympic stadiums and showing great spirit for their athletes. After winning the first-round race, the Washington team assumed they would get the best lane as the typical ruling was. But after some last-minute regulation changes, the American crew was put in the worst lane with the most wind; Great Britain was right next to them. Hmmm, suspicious, wouldn’t you think? Two of Germany’s greatest enemies at the time set up to fail. But that didn’t stop the amazing Washington crew from barely edging out a victory against the toughest competition in the world and winning the gold medal!

This book is a great read for a fan of any team sport, as one of the main themes is teamwork in the story The Boys in the Boat. I greatly enjoyed this book through all the competitions and importance not just for the boys in the physical boat, but for America. 

Thanks, everyone for reading, I will see you all in four weeks!

10/10