The greatest paradox of the sport has to do with the psychological makeup of the people who pull the oars. Great oarsmen are necessarily made of conflicting stuff—of oil and water, fire and earth. They must possess enormous self-confidence, strong egos, and titanic willpower. 

The sport offers so many opportunities for suffering and so few opportunities for glory that only the most tenaciously self-reliant and self-motivated are likely to succeed. And yet, at the same time—and this is key—no other sport demands and rewards the complete abandonment of the self the way that rowing does. 

Great crews may have men of exceptional talent or strength; they may have outstanding coxswains or stroke oars or bowmen; but they have no stars. The team effort, the perfectly synchronized flow of muscle, oars, boat, and water; the single, whole, unified, and beautiful symphony that a crew in motion becomes is all that matters. Not the individual, not the self.

Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown