The San Francisco Chronicle's Scott Ostler recently caught up with three generations of U.S. Olympic coxswains, Kent Mitchell (1960 bronze medal in men's coxed pairs; 1964 gold medal), Pete Cipollone (2004 gold in men's eight) and Zach Vlahos (cox for this year's men's eight). His story Steering toward gold is a coxswain's fine art is published in today's paper.

Vlahos, the former Golden Bear NCAA Champion, talked in-depth about what it takes to become a coxsain and what all goes into the role on the boat.