Sebastian Bea joined the Olympic Club as a Junior Juvenile member in 1994. Bea and his father, long time member Judge Carlos Bea, used The Olympic Club together on the weekends to stay in shape for basketball, which Sebastian played for St. Ignatius.
St. Ignatius’ rowing coach recruited Bea in the spring of 1995, largely because of his athleticism and height (6’ 6”). His quick success caught the attention of a coach at the University of California, Berkeley. In his first year at Cal, Bea’s freshman eight won the Pac-10 Championships and won silver at the Intercollegiate Rowing Championships (IRA).
After exceptional performances in a series of competitions in 1997, Bea was selected for the U.S. National Men’s Eight, rowing at two-seat. At the 1997 World Championship in Aiguebelette, France, his boat was seeded dead last for the finals but pulled out a win. Back at Cal in 1999, Bea and the men’s eight went undefeated and took the gold medal in the IRA, with a course record time that still stands today.
Bea realized that his best chance for an Olympic medal was the pair (two rowers with no coxswain). He returned to the U.S. National Team to compete with Ted Murphy, a Dartmouth graduate and a friend from previous summers with the U.S. team. To win a place on the U.S. Olympic team, the two rowers defeated ten other elite pairs and then beat an independent team from Boston. The pair then finished second behind Yugoslavia at the European Olympic Qualifiers, making them eligible for the Olympics in Australia.
Bea and Murphy began training in earnest, but soon Bea developed severe lower back strain. He decided to forge ahead, even spending part of the long flight to Sydney flat on his back in the aisle. About seven days before their first heat at the Olympic Games, they finally began practicing. To qualify for the semifinals, they had to place in the top three in their heat; they placed third. At the semifinals they would again have to place in the top three to qualify for the finals; they again finished third.
In the final, the pair was in the outside lane with a broken stroke meter and Bea still suffered from a sore back. The race was close; with 500 meters to go Bea and Murphy were in fourth place. They began their sprint at an almost unheard-of 46 strokes per minute, passing Great Britain, Australia, and Yugoslavia, their perennial nemesis, and South Africa. They chased the French to the finish line, losing to them by 0.8 seconds (about a bow deck), but taking the silver medal for the United States. It was an unbelievable come-back against great odds.
