Assault on Lake Casitas

Brad Alan Lewis’s determination to win an Olympic medal had taken over his life by 1984. He would be too old for the 1988 Games and his spot on the 1980 team had been lost to world politics. Only 1984 remained.

But Lewis had a problem.

Emotionally crushed after losing a guaranteed spot on the team by nine-tenths of a second in the single scull trials, Lewis went to the dreaded Olympic selection camp, where he hoped to earn a place in a national team boat.

Again he failed.

Lewis refused to be denied. He teamed up with Paul Enquist, who had been cut from the camp, and began training to challenge the national boat. It would be their last chance to compete in the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Using innovative psychological and physical training techniques developed by Lewis, they defeated the national entry at the double scull trials, three weeks after being considered failures by the system. In an event dominated by the Europeans, they won the first United States gold medal in rowing since 1964 and the first in the double scull since 1932.

Lewis’s story is more than a book about a man winning a gold medal in a sport that offers little more than personal rewards. It is about challenging convention, overcoming defeat and working outside of an established system. Assault on Lake Casitas is a compelling tale of competition at the highest possible level and the emotions that fuel obsession.