WINNING THE HANGING HUNK OF GOLD, not once but twice, at the World Rowing Junior Championships is quite an oardeal. With the boat’s narrow, long body and semicircular cross-section to reduce drag, it makes watercraft both fast and unstable—requiring core strength to balance, or “set,” while exerting maximum cyclic endurance into the oars. But Clark Atlas Dean, Pine View High graduate and former rower for Sarasota Crew, makes it look like a walk in the park—propelling briskly across the open water as if an invisible motor were rigged behind his individual shell. Racing on the 2,000-meter course in Racice, Czech Republic, Dean at 18-years young, led the pack by successfully defending his world crown in the single sculls—won in 2017 when the championships were held in Trakai, Lithuania. Standing triumphantly at 6’4, Dean’s already graced the cover of ROWING magazine twice in the past year, and headed off to Harvard University this past fall, where the crew team welcomed him with open arms. “As far as future plans go, my immediate goal is to win races with Harvard in the spring,” he says, raring and stoked to stroke. “And come summer, I’m going to be traveling to California to try to make the senior national team, and hopefully compete with them in September at the Senior World Championships.” US Rowing’s senior national team represents the country at the highest level of international competition, with athletes competing at the Rowing World Cups, Pan American Games, the World Championships and, the granddaddy of them all, the Olympic Games.