My Dad the World Champion

During the Olympics, hundreds of athletes soar out of anonymity and into the public eye, captivating the imaginations of regular people everywhere. Those athletes are never rowers. But for athlete Don Spero, the 1964 Olympics and 1966 World Rowing Championships still retain the shiny fabulousness of when he was there. More important still, the story of his battle with the invincible Russian single sculler of that decade has been told and retold in the family, reaching the status of legend. And it just never gets old. In this segment, Don's daughter Laura asks her father about his rowing career and his rivalry with rower Vyacheslav Ivanov. But the story is less about Ivanov, or rowing, so much as the way that history becomes a story that we tell our children. The best of these stories are as magical as the events that once generated them, and one thing is certain: Don and his daughter love this one. (To hear a fully mastered version as aired on Weekend America, please visit http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/09/ivanov/)