The Guardian: The Boat Race

The 163rd Boat Race took place in London on 2 April where the Cambridge women crew and Oxford men crew were the winners. Mark de Rond, Professor of Organisational Ethnography at Cambridge Judge, spent a year living with University of Cambridge oarsmen to study teamwork. In his book The Last Amateurs: To Hell And Back With The Cambridge Boat Race Crew, he wrote: “Why would these students swap dreaming spires for still dark mornings, for perpetual exhaustion, for rain and wind and damp clothes? Why would anyone pursue anything where the personal investment is so very steep and yet the material reward non-existent? To train and remain forever an amateur.”

Read the full article [theguardian.com]