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Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss competed for the United States in the rowing men's pair at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It's safe to assume the twin brothers, who grew up in Greenwich and began rowing in Westport, will never find room for Mark Zuckerberg in their boat.
The Winklevoss brothers and a friend have contended that Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, stole their idea when they were undergraduates at Harvard. The story will be told in the movie "The Social Network," which opens Friday. "It's certainly flattering and exciting that people of this caliber are telling our story, the story of the founding, on the big screen," Cameron Winklevoss told the Canadian Press. "It's certainly really cool."
The brothers and Divya Narendra started to develop a social networking site at Harvard and asked Zuckerberg, who was also a Harvard student, to assist them with technical issues. The Winklevoss brothers and Narendra contend Zuckerberg quit working for them without notice, moved to Silicon Valley and took the Facebook idea with him. The parties reached a reported $65 million settlement. It is under appeal because of a misrepresentation in the stock price.
In addition to the Olympics, the brothers have also competed in the Pan American Games. They started rowing at the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport under coach James Mangan. Their father, Dr. Howard Winklevoss, supported Mangan in building a new clubhouse for the SRC and transformed the facility into one of the most prestigious rowing centers in the country. You won't find much information on the Winklevoss' rowing exploits in "The Social Network." You more than likely will find some fascinating insight to their claim on how Zuckerberg "stole" their methods en route to becoming the world's youngest billionaire.
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