Rower in spotlight at famed London race
Mike Wherley's crewmates figured he was used to all the attention.
They were wrong.
Standing in front of the lights and the reporters and the photographers, the Sun Prairie native got a taste of what the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race means in England.
Wherley, a two-time Olympian in rowing who is spending the year at Oxford studying for a master's degree in financial economics, was a much-publicized part of this year's event because he became the oldest oarsman in the race's 154 runnings.
When the crews were unveiled in early March, the 36-year-old Wherley was front and center.
"So we're standing on this podium after they introduced us, and all these cameras are snapping off," Wherley said in a recent phone interview. "And one of my teammates says to me, 'So I guess you're used to this.' And I'm like, no. I go, 'This is weird.' They never had any cameramen there when they announced the Olympic team, I'll tell you that much.
"Seriously, it's so under the spotlight. Not that it's the only thing people cared about during that time; there's definitely a lot of things going on in the sporting world that got bigger billing during the lead-in and things like that. But to have all those reporters care so much about the introduction of the crews or the weigh-in, it's like, really?"
Wherley and his Oxford teammates tried to psych out the Cambridge crew before the weigh-in by downing plenty of water to add another pound or two to the official total.
"There's some aspects to it that you just don't find anywhere else in rowing," Wherley said. "That was part of the allure of it. I had heard stories from many of my former U.S. national team teammates who had come over and competed and studied, and I thought that it sounded like a pretty special experience, but I didn't know the half of it."
Wherley helped Oxford win the March 29 race on the Thames in London. It likely was his last big-time race, so the win provided a nice send-off.
"It was definitely a special experience for me," Wherley said. "I enjoyed training with the team the whole year. I think it was a really fun group to train with, and it's a very high-level program as well. They cover all the angles. When you're racing in a race like the boat race where you know nothing about your opponent until you get to the starting line, that's pretty important. I really enjoyed the process of it, especially the build-up the last three or four weeks. Overall, it was just a great experience, and I'm really, really happy that I decided to come over here and do that."
Wherley competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics with the men's four boat and was a part of the U.S. world championship eight boat in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
But rowing didn't play that much of a part in his decision to go to Oxford, he said.
The idea of getting a financial degree was planted when he was working in equity research. He started looking into master's degrees and liked the Oxford program because it was a one-year course instead of a two-year MBA.
"It wasn't about the rowing," Wherley said. "I knew if I went I was definitely going to row. But at the age of 35, I couldn't make a decision based on the rowing. It wouldn't be smart. There are a lot of other degrees I could have applied to and probably gotten in on easier. That's something that you might do when you're 25. But when you're 35, there's just too many other things to consider, and you can't really afford to do that. I had to make sure that the degree was going to be really a strong degree and help me with my career."
He's on schedule to graduate at the end of June. He said he's looking into jobs in London as well as on the East Coast, where he was based before the move across the ocean.
Regardless, he'll be able to take away two things from rowing at Oxford: the coveted victory and the record for the oldest rower.
The British tabloids labeled him the "old man of the river."
"When you think about it, 36 isn't that old in terms of competing at a high level in rowing; there's plenty of people that have done it," Wherley said. "But it is at a university. Even Oxford and Cambridge, where a good chunk of their crews each year are master's students, most people aren't getting master's degrees in their mid-30s.
"But I honestly don't think (the record will) last that long because it's becoming even more popular with people in the international rowing community, to go and compete at these things. So I think that there's always people wanting to come over to Oxford and Cambridge and do a year of study and row in the Boat Race."
