Voices from the shore: weaving male narratives into an oral history of women’s rowing

Description

This presentation wrestles with the on-going struggle of positioning the male voice within oral history narratives focused on the lived experience of women’s athletes. In 2024, Jan Palchikoff – the lead organiser for a committee determined to establish a comprehensive study and repository of women’s rowing history in the United States – outlined the need for an urgent oral history of key figures from the transformational decade in women’s rowing, from the mid-1970s to 1980s. As expected, the initial list of interviewees comprised a selection of well-known figures in the American rowing landscape (Anita DeFrantz, Joan Van Bloom, & Jean Strauss). Subsequent conversations with the committee’s liaison – Debby De Angelis (herself, a part of that initial list) – revealed an unusual and consistent refrain: “we need to talk about the men.”
Six men were singled out as essential – and irreplaceable – voices in the construction of this formative period in women’s rowing history. Due to illness and the passage of time, only four remained able to sit for a session. In interviews with the female athletes, there was an insistence that we must speak to Peter, or Kris, or Bob – as they would know the details. Those interviewed included Kris Korzenowski (women’s head coach 1978-81), Bob Ernst (women’s coach, 1976-88), Dan Bakinowski (guided NWRA formation in mid-1970s), and Peter Lippett (1980 women’s team manager and first chair of the Women’s Olympic Rowing Committee [WORC]). As a male researcher, scheduling these interviews felt out-of-place. Would two men, in conversation, be adequate to provide meaningful additions to the powerful stories delivered by the female athletes themselves? Across four one-hour interviews, the four male voices – which once occupied peripheral positions in coaching launches and boardrooms – provided a resounding chorus of admiration for the female athletes, a sheepishness at being asked for their experience, and a sincere appreciation for their small role in a transformational era. This work seeks to understand how their voices can be woven into the rich tapestry of this women-lead history. In doing so, this project touches on both the ‘doing’ of oral history and the public-facing nature of the final collected narratives.
Foundational work on the necessity of conducting oral histories in female sport has a rich history, dating back to Susan Cahn’s “Sports talk” (1994) and Coming on Strong (1995) to the work of contemporary scholars such as Skillen & Osborne (2011, 2018, 2020, & 2022) and Adams (2012). Even within rowing, there is a robust existing corpus from authors such as Taylor (2020, 2023) and Wasik (2007). Those works provide the framework through which the initial round of oral histories from this research will be analyzed. The recollections and accounts are drawn from interviews with ten members associated with various US National squads from 1974-84. The interviews were conducted from September 2025 through March 2026 and include six women and four men. The interviews themselves were conducted over digital video platforms – Zoom and Microsoft Teams – relying only on mobile phones when necessary. The roughly 45-minute interviews were automatically transcribed and then revised to ensure accuracy and clarity. I was the primary research lead for all the interviews and subsequent analysis.

Period	25 May 2026
Event title	North American Society for Sport History
Event type	Conference
Location	Austin, United States, TexasShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International