Bert Bushnell - Career - 1948 Summer Olympics

1948 Summer Olympics

Bushnell hoped to compete at the 1948 Summer Olympics in the single scull event. However, after he was a distant runner-up by five lengths in the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta on 4 July 1948, to Australian policeman Mervyn Wood, who subsequently won the Olympic singles that year, Bushnell was chosen instead to pair with old Etonian Oxonian rower Dickie Burnell in the Olympic double sculls event, having never previously trained with his new partner. Jack Beresford told Bushnell that there wasn't a chance for him to win the single sculls, and so created the double sculls team instead. Their differing physiques — Burnell was 6 ft 4in and weighed 14½ stone, while Bushnell was 5 ft 10in and 10½ stone — presented some difficulties in the boat, which Bushnell had to re-rig so that they were able to reach together.

Bushnell and Burnell only had a month to train for the Games, with animosity between the two due to the difference in their class backgrounds. Bushnell later said in an interview, "There was class tension there and it came from me being bloody awkward." Bushnell struck up a friendship with American rower John B. Kelly, Jr. and Australian Merv Wood. The rowers' diets had been increased from the normal 2,500 calories allowed by rationing to a "miner's diet" of 3,600 calories. However, the other teams were having food flown in specially in order to increase their calorie intake and allow them to train more. Bushnell would invite Kelly and Wood over for dinner, with his guests bringing the food. Bushnell and Burnell both attended the opening ceremony of the 1948 Games, something Bushnell described as "dreadful", as they gave the athletes poorly fitting uniforms and made them stand out in the sun en-masse for three hours.

At the Olympic regatta on the Henley Royal Regatta course, which only measured 1900 metres, Bushnell was in the bow and Burnell the stern seat, or as Bushnell indicated later: "I was on the bridge and Dickie was in the engine room. In an attempt to avoid the favoured Danish duo of Ebbe Parsner and Aage Larsen in the semi-finals, Bushnell and Burnell deliberately came second to France in the first round. According to Bushnell: "Dickie decided we should lose the first heat so as not to meet the Danes in the semi-final. ... I wouldn't have had the nerve to do that. We could have won, but we didn't." They subsequently won both the repêchage followed by the semi-final.

On Monday, 9 August 1948, in front of a home crowd estimated to be 20,000 spectators, Bushnell and Burnell competed in the Olympic final against the double scull teams of Uruguay and Denmark. Bushnell nearly missed the final, held at the Leander Club in Henley, as stewards would not allow him to enter; he later explained "You see I wasn't a member then – not posh enough". At around the three-minute mark, the British team decided to push for the win, eventually taking it in six minutes and 51.3 seconds, 1½ lengths ahead of the favoured Danish duo of Parsner and Larsen (6:55.3) and five ahead of William Jones and Juan A. Rodriguez Iglesias of Uruguay (7:12.4). On the jetty they were awarded their medals while standing in their socks. As there were no ribbons for the medals due to cost-saving measures, they were given them in presentation boxes while "God Save the King" was played by a band.

Decades later Bushnell indicated in an interview with Janie Hampton: "The Olympics didn't feel a big deal. It was like Henley regatta with a few foreigners thrown in." Despite winning an Olympic gold medal, Bushnell returned to his occupation, indicating in an interview: "There was no fuss and my life wasn’t changed. I went back to work as a marine engineer on Monday. I didn’t get paid to have days off and my employers considered I was a bloody nuisance."

In the 1949 European Championships Bushnell and Burnell finished 5th. In the Henley Royal Regatta of June 1949, Bushnell withdrew from the single sculls to focus on the double sculls. However, Bushnell and Burnell were defeated by the Danish team of Parsner and Larsen in the double sculls event in a record-breaking race.