Theodore Allison Nash II (October 29, 1932 – July 3, 2021) was an American competition rower and Olympic champion, rowing coach, and sports administrator.[1][2] Nash participated, either as a coach or athlete, in eleven separate Olympic Games from 1960 to 2008.[3]
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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Born | October 29, 1932 Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||
Died | July 3, 2021 Medford, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged 88)|||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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He was born in Melrose, Massachusetts.[1][2] Nash served as a pilot[3] and first lieutenant in the Army Aviation division, teaching aviation and aerobatics.[1] He was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. While in the military, he was also an anti-guerrilla warfare instructor, an officer candidate school tactical officer for the Army and a member of the elite Green Beret, and special forces units for the Army. He was recalled four times on special friendly projects across the world.[citation needed]
Nash has served as both freshman and varsity coach for Penn and been a longtime supporter and icon of Penn AC.
Nash won a gold medal in coxless fours at the 1960 Summer Olympics[1][4] and a bronze for the same event at the 1964 Olympics.[1] He also won gold medals at the 1959 and 1963 Pan American Games.[1][2][5]
Nash coached at the University of Pennsylvania, first as freshman coach from 1965, then as head coach from 1969–1983.[6][1][2] He was also a longtime supporter of Penn AC.[6] Nash co-founded the National Women's Rowing Association and was the unofficial running coach at the Padukies Track Club in Philadelphia.[7]
He also coached entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in the coxless pair at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[8]
Nash died at the age of 88 on July 3, 2021, in Medford, New Jersey.[9][1][3]
In 2023, the documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox said that Nash had sexually abused her when she was 13 and he was 40.[7][10] Nash was Fox's running instructor in 1973 when she was at horseback riding summer camp.[7] Fox alleges that Nash forced her to perform oral sex multiple times. Fox also disclosed that in high school she wrote an essay detailing the abuse.[7] She had previously told the story of her abuse, without revealing Nash's identity, in the 2018 film The Tale.[7][10]
Nash's first wife Aldina Nash-Hampe described the accusation as a "surprise", but conceded that Nash "seemed to have affairs with a lot of women" and in 1972 she filed for a divorce after she found letters from Nash to other women.[7] Jan Nash, his second wife, and Sean P. Colgan, one of Nash's former collegiate and national team rowers, described the accusations as uncharacteristic.[7]