The Olympic Games are perhaps the world’s most famous venue for athletic competition. Men and women from all around the globe compete in every discipline imaginable to represent their country. Just making it to the Games is a feat in and of itself - most athletes can only dream of getting to represent their nation on the international stage.
For Thomas Charlton ’52, this dream became a reality when he competed in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia as part of the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team. Captaining and stroking the men’s eight, Charlton led his crew to a surprising victory over the Canadian and Australian boats. Managing to hold a lead gained early on in the race, the American crew secured a gold medal. The path to victory was by no means an easy one; having placed poorly in the qualifiers for the final event, the Americans were the underdogs in the fight.
In the midst of a hotly contested Cold War Olympics, this group of Yale rowers who formed the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team managed to push through a two kilometer ordeal to seal their names in the history books. Racing an eight is always a brutal task, and under the immense stress that these young men would have been facing, it is difficult to imagine the lengths they went to to secure the win. Their pain (and also their glory) was highlighted by LIFE Magazine in an article aptly titled “Agonies of victory for comeback crew.” Although the boat that Charlton raced with came from Yale University, Charlton’s gold medal is now proudly displayed in St. Paul School’s own Athletic and Fitness Center (AFC).
Charlton’s reason for donating the medal to SPS is that our school is “where [he] learned to row.” This is a statement that many St. Paul’s rowers can identify with. Many, if not most of our school’s crew athletes have never rowed before arriving here. Eighteen St. Paul’s graduates have rowed at the Olympics, and one has coached an Olympic crew team. “Good luck to them” is Thomas Charton’s message to current rowers and those who have yet to begin racing at SPS.