The incredible rush to judgment Newton and Auburn endured is nothing more than a contemporary version of the kind of misplaced elitism that kept Jack Kelly, reigning Olympic Champion and now perhaps better known as the father of the late actress Grace Kelly, from rowing at the famed Henley Regatta in 1920 because he had once done manual labor as a brick layer.

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There they trained with members of the US rowing team, coached military veterans and competed in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta.

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