One of America’s most celebrated
rowing athletes, Don Spero won the
World Rowing Single Sculls Championship
in 1966 in Bled, Yugoslavia.
Later that year, he again took the gold
medal at the National Championships
at St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada. In 1965, Spero
won the Henley Regatta
Diamond Sculls Championship in
England and the Duisberg International
Regatta Single Sculls Gold Medal in
Germany.
Spero was U.S. national champion
in 1963, 1964, and 1966 in Single Sculls;
Double Sculls Champion in 1963; and
Quadruple Sculls Champion in 1965.
Although injured in the 1964 Olympic
semifinals, Spero managed to finish
sixth in Single Sculls at the Tokyo
Games and won a bronze medal in the
same event that year at the European
Championships in Amsterdam. In 1963, Spero took a silver
medal in Double
Sculls at the European Championships
in Copenhagen.
His first international competition
came at the World Maccabiah Games in
1961, when he captured a gold medal in
Four with Coxswain.
In 1966, Spero co-founded the National
Rowing Foundation and was its
director from 1967 to 1984. Among his
many honors are election to the
Helms/Rowing Hall of Fame in 1966,
Cornell University Hall of Fame in
1984, and New York Athletic Club Hall
of Fame in 1986.
|