22 April 2026

This summer, Canadian veteran sportswriter Ed Willes is coming out with The Eight, the story of Mike Spracklen and the rowers he coached in Canadia.

A press release from the publisher, MET Fine Printers, reads:

Mike Spracklen is inarguably one of the two or three greatest rowing coaches in the history of the sport. In a career spanning five decades, his boats produced 13 Olympic medals and some 30 medals in international racing. During his time in Canada, he transformed the country into the preeminent sweep rowing nation in the world – a dominance that made every rival program, including the U.S., measure itself against what he had built.

The book is an intimate portrait of elite rowing, its triumph and defeat, memorable victories and heartbreaking losses. But it is also about the inner lives of the athletes, the sacrifice, loyalty, teamwork, and passion that drove their pursuit of excellence.

The book is the product of more than 60 interviews conducted by Willes and photographer Kevin Light, an Olympic gold medallist, who rowed for Spracklen at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Light’s more than 100 photographs are intimate, powerful and tell their own story alongside the text.

Dan Barnes wrote about the book in the Toronto Sun on 15 April, here.

The Eight is produced by MET Fine Printers, a Vancouver-based commercial printer specialising in high-end, collectors-edition books. It is designed and printed to the company’s highest standards and is available for pre-sale only, at CA$120.

To pre-order: theeightbook.com