When Joanne Wright Iverson started rowing boats in 1959, women, with few exceptions, did not row.  There was no women’s rowing organization, rowing coaches didn’t coach women, colleges didn’t have women’s crews, boat houses didn’t have women’s locker rooms, and it you just happened to be a woman who rowed there was no one to race against.  Rowing in America was a century old bastion of male muscles and macho – governed by stodgy old codgers wrapped in blue blazers and self importance who steadfastly deluded themselves into believing women should not sweat, should not strain their meager muscles, or otherwise test their tender sensibilities.

 These sad chauvinists had yet to meet Joanne Wright Iverson, a woman clearly, who was not only passionate about rowing on her native Schuylkill River (Philadelphia), but obsessed with the notion that women, American women, should row in the Olympics.  “An Obsession with Rings,” then, is Iverson’s story her fight to establish women’s rowing in the U.S., her determination to be part of the first women’s rowing team to compete in the Olympics, a goal she achieved in 1976 in Montreal.  It is a personal story filled with glorious wins and bitter setbacks, one that demonstrates the passion and persistence that have characterized the American women’s fight for gender equality since the 19^th century, be it for the right to vote, equal opportunity on the job, or for a place in the halls of government.

 As a male born to row, my starting lines assured, my finish lines approved, my Olympic odyssey already writ in the stars, I find Iverson’s odyssey remarkable. That I should have been rowing on the same Schuylkill with her and been oblivious of her struggle serves to dramatize her success in ushering women into a male dominated sport and ultimately into the Olympics, all in 17 short years. 

 That Iverson should now, as her “Obsession with Rings” is published, be president of the venerable Vesper Boat Club from whence my Olympic crew came way back in the ‘60s, makes her story all the more poignant.

 If you like passion, persistence, struggle and triumph, I recommend “An Obsession with Rings”.- Emory Clark ’64 Vesper Gold Medal Eight

Janit Stahl from Rowing News also reviewed the book. It can be found here.