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LOGLINE: Four brothers. Two generations. One family's extraordinary quest for gold. Back on the Water is inspired by true events where in 1924, Bill Havens, Sr. was tasked with the impossible decision to represent Team USA at the Paris Olympic Games or staying home to watch the birth of his son. Twenty-eight years later, Frank Benjamin Havens boards a ship to Helsinki, Finland to the 1952 Olympic Games, vowing to bring home the gold medal his father should have won.

SYNOPSIS: In the early 1920’s, Bill Havens, Sr. and his younger brother, Charles “Bud” Havens, were members of the Washington Canoe Club on the banks of the Potomac River. While training for the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, Bill, Sr. learned that his wife was pregnant with their second son, and the due date was around the time of the Games. Length of travel in that era meant he couldn’t commit to both. Wrestling with the correct decision, Bill, Sr. ultimately surrendered his spot on the Olympic team to watch the birth of his son, Frank Benjamin Havens. Through the Great Depression and the turbulent times leading up to the Second World War, Frank and his older brother, Bill Havens, Jr., continued the Havens’ tradition, becoming dominant regional paddlers. The Havens’ Olympic dreams were kindled again. But WWII put a hold on those dreams, and they both entered the military and fought for their country and a free world. Finding their way back to the water, the brothers made the US Team in the 1948 London Olympic Games, and Frank won Silver, and Junior placed fifth in their respective events. During practice before the actual competitions, they had beaten the US tandem team, which then inspired them to train and race together once they returned home. They both felt they had unfinished business. Over the next three and a half years, the brothers broke what would’ve been existing Olympic and world records, becoming Olympic favorites. Leading into the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, fate had other plans for the duo. In a freak accident, Bill Jr. severed the tendons in his hand just months before they were set to participate in the Games. Frank now had to pivot and paddle solo. At the Games, Doc Whitall, the Canadian coach, lent Frank his personal paddle after Frank broke all three paddles that he had brought with him during practice. Having narrowly avoided a serious hand injury of his own with the paddles breaking in his hand, the etching of “Doc” could be seen on the paddle with blood running down the paddle shaft as Frank crossed the finish line, winning Gold, and setting the world record in the single blade, 10K canoe event. Frank would finish those Games and his family’s quest at a Western Union, writing a telegram to his father, thanking him for sticking around to watch him get born, and that he was coming home with the Gold medal that his dad should have won.

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