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Hartley Tries to Strengthen His Bid for Summer Games : Rowing: Former SDSU student is in Vienna competing at the World Championships.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Tom Hartley never really was coordinated enough to play basketball. He was pretty tall--standing 3 1/2 inches more than six feet--but he was, you know, kind of stringy.

He golfed during his senior season at Kalaheo High School, on the island of Oahu, but that was about as athletic as he got. His interests?

“Mostly academics,” he said.

He chose San Diego State. There, for the first time in his life, somebody really wanted him and it didn’t involve his brain.

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The crew team.

Hartley said yes. Today through Aug. 25, he’s in Vienna, Austria, rowing for the U.S. national team in the lightweight 8 shell at the World Championships.

He has come a long way from the barge class his freshman year at SDSU. He rowed varsity for three years and coached there for two more.

“I’ve always been kind of skinny and fairly uncoordinated so that when someone actually asked me to do something athletically, I decided to give it a shot,” Hartley said. “They asked me to try out for crew--it favors height--so they noticed me and asked if I wanted to join. I said sure. I enrolled in the barge class where you learn how to row. It’s something I really liked and wanted to do and got hooked on it.”

So hooked that he wishes he could row and coach the rest of his life--”provided there was any money in it.”

The financial gains are few but the personal satisfaction is great, he said. A lot of guts, a little glory. There are the annual World Championships, but they pale in comparison to the Olympics. The catch is that the Olympics are open only to heavier entries. That has Hartley thinking about pumping up after the World Championships.

“Right now, I can’t picture it,” he said, “but if I were already a heavyweight, I could picture it.

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“I’m seriously considering trying to put on 20 pounds of muscle. I’m tall enough so that I wouldn’t be too bulky.”

Hartley thinks his frame can support 175 pounds, which would enable him to compete among the heavyweights and, perhaps, appear at the 1992 Summer Olympics. As it is, he is 160 pounds and must get down to 157 1/2 to compete in the lightweight 8 boat this week.

“That’s not too difficult, as long as I don’t do anything crazy like go on a pizza binge,” he said. “The day of a race, I might run a mile or two to drop the last couple of pounds, weigh in and then rehydrate.”

Although he easily can drop the three pounds, he is calorie conscious.

“A lot of times, it’s not a pleasant existence,” he said. “Here you are, 26, 27 years old and you’re at a dinner party and they bring out the ice cream. I’m sick of saying, ‘I can’t.’ ”

Becoming a heavyweight is something that will happen eventually to him. Hartley has no desire to pick at his food the rest of his life.

“I’ve proven my rowing ability (as a lightweight),” he said. “Even if I don’t make the Olympic team, I’ll still look and feel better about myself.

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“I’d like to go to the Olympics. I think that would be the greatest rush in the world.”

The biggest rush for the lightweight rowers comes at the World Championships. Hartley won a silver medal last year in the lightweight 4 without a coxswain. One thing left to aim at is the gold medal. Or the Olympics. The U.S. men’s 8, who won the bronze in 1988, will try to improve upon that effort in the 1992 Games. Only time will tell whether Hartley is a part of the effort.

“It’s something I’ve thought about a lot,” Hartley said. “I’ve done a lot with lightweights. I want something new and challenging to do. This would give me an opportunity to push myself further in this sport. I may go (to the open class), I may stay a lightweight. I’ll make that decision after the World Championships. If we get a gold or silver in the Worlds, I might stay a lightweight, but I think I would like to move on.”

He seems to have the fortitude to do so.

“His work ethic is very strong, very determined,” said Stewart McDonald, Hartley’s coach.

But that’s common among all rowers, whether at the high school, college or international level. The only difference is that Hartley will begin his quest down by 20 pounds.

And who would have ever thought that he would get to this point in his life, to actually consider making an Olympic team?

“I didn’t start thinking about it until my junior year in college,” Hartley said. “To be there with Carl Lewis and all the big stars you read about. Hard for me to believe I could go because I’ve always been a lightweight.”

Not many thought Hartley would reach this point. He is one of 56 men in the national program and just 23 lightweights. But he fell in love with the sport and devoted himself to it. He moved to Cambridge, Mass., in 1989 and competed for the Boston Rowing Center, becoming one of the select eight among lightweight rowers.

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“When I was coaching, I got sick of watching people row,” Hartley said. “In order to make the national team, you’ve got to go to the East Coast because that’s where the rowing power is, so I made the move.”

It’s not the only sacrifice he’s made. He’s in bed by 9, he’s on the water by 6.

And what about his social life?

“My social life is pretty much kept within other oarspeople,” Hartley said. “It’s not uncommon to have a barbecue instead of going out drinking or dinners, so people can go to bed at 8 or 9 to get up that early. You can go out and have a social life and have a good time, but after a full day of work and two practices, you start winding down about 9 o’clock. In that sense, it’s tough to have a girlfriend who wants to go out and dance until 11 or midnight when you want to crash on the couch at 9.”

Hartley thinks the hard work he and his crew mates have put in will pay off this week. The lightweight 8 is vying for its first medal at the World Championships since it won a silver in 1988, one of three it has won since 1980.

“We show some good indications the boat is moving very well,” Hartley said last week by telephone from Hanover, N.H. “If we keep improving, we have an excellent chance to medal and possibly get a gold medal in an event dominated by the Italians. They’ve won the gold medal the past six years. So, to beat them, we’re going to have to be very good.”

It’s a weighty assignment.

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