Henry
Robert Pearce was born in London in 1905, but was known for most of his life as
Bobby Pearce. His father Harry was a much accomplished rower who had twice
challenged for the world championship. His grandfather Harry Pearce Senior had
sculled against Ed Trickett and had beaten William Beach before Beach went on
to win the world championship in 1885. With so much sculling heritage in his
family, it was no surprise that at the age of six Bobby first entered a regatta
and won an under-16 handicap race. Pearce then went on to win his first open
event at the age of 14, and in 1926 he took the Australian single sculls
championship title. Growing up in the Sydney harbourside suburb of Double Bay,
his immediate rowing future before the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics came under a
shadow due to accusations of professionalism. Convincing the New South Wales
Amateur Rowing Association that this was a case of mistaken identity (arguing
it was one of his brothers who had received payment for race rowing, an
insurmountable bar to Olympic competition which was firmly amateur in 1928),
Bobby Pearce was confirmed by the then Australian Olympic Federation as
Australia's single sculls entrant.
The
Amsterdam 1928 rowing regatta was held on the Sloten Canal, and in the single
sculls (also known as the skiff) there were fifteen countries represented with
fifteen entrants. The format of the competition was an initial round of seven
match races, followed by a reclassification/repercharge round, a second round
of six matches races and two reclassifications, a third round of four match
races, a semi-final and then the gold medal final scull. Bobby Pearce had
carried the Australian flag at the front of the Australian team in the Antwerp
opening ceremony and this honour was a tribute to his potential results in the
upcoming Olympic regatta. The leading rivals for Pearce were the Briton
Theodore Collet, the American Kenneth Myers and the local sculler, Dutchman
Lambertus Collet.
In
the opening round Pearce demonstrated his superiority over his German rival
Walter Flinsch, a five-time national champion, reaching the finish of their
scull 26 seconds in front of the German. In the Sydney Morning Herald it was
reported that Bobby Pearce had actually pulled up and waited for Flinsch to
finish. Amongst the other potential medallists Myers had defeated De Kok from
South Africa, Collet beat Candeveau of Switzerland and Gunther had narrowly
lost to the Canadian Wright. Importantly Pearce had set the quickest time for
the distance, winning in 7 minutes 55.75 seconds.
The
next round of sculling matches were even more promising for Pearce. Rowing
against the Dane oarsman Schwartz Bobby Pearce won with eight lengths to spare,
taking almost a full half minute off his previous race time. Gunther had won
through his reclasification round and won his race, whilst Myers defeated
Collet. It was obvious by now that Bobby Pearce was in gold medal winning form.
It was going to take a lot to stop Pearce in his quarter-final race against the
French rower Victor Saurin. No one would have expected what did stop the
Australian on his way to gold.
As
recorded by Harry Gordon in his book "Australia and The Olympic
Games", the following story was reported by a Dutch newspaper and had many
and varied retellings. However Pearce himself gave only one recorded version of
the incident that occurred in his scull against Savrin, in an interview given
to sports historian Henry Roxborough in 1976, just after Pearce's death;
"I
had beaten a German and a Dane in earlier heats and I was racing a Frenchman
when I heard wild roars from the crowd along the bank of the canal. I could see
some spectators vigorously pointing to something behind me, in my path. I
peeked over one shoulder and saw something I didn't like, for a family of ducks
in single file was swimming slowly from shore to shore. It's funny now, but it
wasn't at the time for I had to lean on my oars and wait for a clear course,
and all the while my opponenet was pulling away to a five length lead."
With
an effort that would have been considered impossible from any of his
competitors, and even today is hard to believe Pearce chased Savrin after
stopping for the duck and its ducklings, caught up with the Frenchmen and then
by the time the race was over Pearce had finished almost 30 seconds in front of
his challenger. In fact Bobby Pearce's time even with the stop included was the
fastest of the remaining eight scullers in that round. Not even swimming ducks
could halt Bobby Pearce.
In
the semi-final Pearce came up against the Briton Collet, and won through to the
gold medal race by four lengths. The American Myers was unbeaten like Pearce,
but his fastest time for the course was still a good 12 or so second behind the
Australian's best. The final race, held on smooth water in the Sloten Canal on
15th October 1928 ended as it was expected. Pearce took the gold (in a time of
7 minutes 11 seconds, a record that would remain for the Olympic single sculls
until Munich 1972) and was thus the greatest single oarsman at the 1928 Olympics.
He was the first Australian rower to win a gold medal at the Olympics, then
four years later he was the first Australian to successfully defend an Olympic
title when he took gold at the 1932 Los Angeles regatta. Arguably the greatest
pre-World War Two Australian Olympian, Bobby Pearce will always be remembered
as the man who stopped rowing for ducks at the Olympic Games.
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