The Amateurs The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal BY DAVID HALBERSTAM What would compel a group of men to endure untold physical pain and exhaustion fora sport that promised no monetary compensation or fame That’s the question at the heart of Halberstam’s riveting narrative about the 1984 U.S. rowing trials, a book that offers a glimpse into the fires of intrinsic motivation. Type I Insight: No chartered planes or buses ferried the athletes into Princeton. No team managers hustled their baggage from the bus to the hotel desk and made arrangements so that at mealtime they need only show up and sign a tab. This was a world of hitched rides and borrowed beds, and meals, if not scrounged, were desperately budgeted by appallingly hungry young men.”
