Loyola grad Aghai earns world rowing title

• Reprints

Tim Aghai

Updated: January 23, 2012 3:14AM

Dariush Timothy Aghai of Skokie was a scrawny 130-pound freshman seven years ago, and the very last member recruited by the Loyola Academy Rowing Association. He’s now a world champion who could be an Olympian in either 2012 or ’16.

New to the sport, Aghai didn’t even earn one of the eight spots on the Ramblers varsity boat until his senior year. But he worked his way up to becoming one of the team captains and left an indelible impression on LARA coach Matt Baldino.

“Tim embodied everything we stand for at Loyola in terms of hard work, commitment and character,” said Baldino, who rowed the University of Wisconsin to three straight Big Ten titles. “He’s also extremely outgoing, kind and humble. He’s the type of kid coaches dream about getting.”

Following the same route, Aghai enrolled at Madison and worked even harder to improve. As a junior, he led the Badgers to fourth place this spring at the 2011 IRA National Championships, the equivalent of NCAA basketball’s “Road to the Final Four” tournament.

Aghai, a microbiology major, then was named Wisconsin’s 2010-11 Men’s Athlete of the Year, an award that recognizes academics and sportsmanship along with athletic excellence. That was no trifling feat. The school’s highly ranked football and basketball teams featured stars aplenty and drew roughly 9,999 words of media coverage to every one for the rowing team. Aghai isn’t even on an athletic scholarship; the major sports eat up the men’s quota.

“Relentlessness is what makes the best rowers. It’s what separates Tim,” said Badgers coach Chris Clark. “If you have some physiology and some work ethic, and then you combine those things with being relentless, that’s what makes you great.”

Aghai’s ascendant year soared higher again this summer. Invited to try out for the Under-23 national team, he tested the very best of more than 20 candidates in advanced physiological exams measuring maximum heart rate, uptake of oxygen and pain tolerance. Once again, he defied the odds. Generously listed at 6-foot-2, 170 pounds, Aghai is small for a rower, and bigger guys usually score better.

Also, top rowers — including the overwhelming majority of Europeans — flock to Ivy League schools in the East or such heavyweights as 2011 champion Washington and Stanford to the West. Wisconsin, a national champion in 2008, is the only power in the heartland.

Aghai not only made the U.S. team but guided it to the gold medal in the 2011 World Rowing U-23 Championships, held in Amsterdam July 21-24. The U.S. squad won its heat in the men’s eight to advance directly to the finals, and then set a U-23 world-best time of 5:24.31 over the standard 2,000-meter course. The coxswain directing the crew from the stern was fellow Badger Anthony Altimari.

The American crew missed the overall world record by only four seconds despite a steady downpour and turbulent winds. It survived the six minutes of physical torture and competitive bedlam to beat bigger, more experienced teams.

“Our coach told us to go as hard as you can the last 250 meters and win the race for the best country in the world,” Aghai said. “We were behind Germany and Britain at the start. We made it up in the middle 1,000 meters. With 500 meters left, we had open water between us and them. We crossed the line, but everything was so crazy and frantic we weren’t sure if we’d beaten Great Britain or not. Then we got the news we won. A great feeling I’ll never forget.”

On the heels of his latest triumph, Aghai could receive an invitation to try out for the 2012 United States Olympic team. The 21-year-old college senior would be bucking the odds once again. The typical Olympian rower is about 6-5, 225, with 6-to-7 percent body fat and peaks at around 26 years of age. The youngest usually have completed their collegiate careers.

Rowing is hardly a prime-time sport, but it has a rich Olympic tradition dating back to 1900, and the United States takes it very seriously. The U.S. has won 84 medals, far more than any other country, but defending champ Great Britain is just one of numerous perennial contenders.

Rather than try to get bigger, Aghai could go the other way, dropping down to 165 and making the Lightweight Men Olympics team.

“I never even thought about the Olympics until now, when we won nationals. I’ve gone from a struggling high-school rower to a struggling college rower,” reflected Aghai, one of six Wisconsin returnees who will vie for a national title next spring. “It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of time, more than I ever imagined putting in.”

Aghai doesn’t get the glory or publicity accorded a basketball or football star, but he works as hard or harder on a year-round basis.

“We do two-a-days five times a week, and one session the other two days,” he said. “You’re outside on the lake in the winter freezing your tail off. Or you’re training on the erg (ergometer rowing machine).

“The erg has had a large part to do with my success.”

Aghai competes solely in sweep rowing, with each participant holding one oar with both hands. Top-level rowers are among the most superbly conditioned of any athletes. They will inhale and exhale twice per stroke and deliver up to 45 strokes per minute.

The rising star gives the lion’s share of credit to his parents. Mohsen is an electrical engineer originally from Iran. Krystyna, a dental technician, was born and raised in Poland. Both came to the States in their early 20s with virtually nothing. Their first born, Matthew, now 25, encouraged Tim to follow in his footsteps and attend Loyola — and try rowing.

“I can never thank my parents enough. They’ve worked hard and sacrificed everything to give me and my brother everything we’ve ever needed,” said the youngest Aghai. “They are the hardest-working people I know, and they taught us to be kind and respectful.”

When the Wisconsin kids attend tournaments in the East, they are no match out of the water for the perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed Oxford, Harvard and other blue-blooded contingents. Aghai loves it that way.

“My brother said, ‘You guys look so scraggly compared to everyone else.’ Yeah, I guess we do,” conceded Aghai. “We’re underdogs in a lot of ways.”

Through sheer hard work, Dariush Timothy Aghai is no longer an underdog.