I had quite an upsetting experience in Tokyo,” says Jordan Parry on his Olympic debut. This summer marks an impressive comeback for the Kiwi sculler from Tauranga Rowing Club. Officially selected to represent New Zealand in the men’s double at Paris, and with one of his former rowing idol to boot, the Tokyo Olympian, nicknamed Paz, has returned to the sharp end of international racing despite wrecking his ankle in a motorbike accident mid-way through this Olympiad.
Photo Jordan Parry racing at the Tokyo Olympics in the NZL M1x
As he closes-in on a second dose of Olympic fever, Parry reflects on his helter-skelter sculling career, and hints at why this Games might be his last. It’s easy to root for the easy-going New Zealander as he retells his story: always humble and often understated.
We start by revisiting his last international race in the men’s single sculls at the 2022 season finale. The year before Parry ousted rowing legend Mahé Drysdale from the single to win his Tokyo berth – to borrow from boxing’s lineal champion lexicon he became ‘the man who beat the man’.
Parry reclaimed his seat (“after some convincing”) for the 2022 World Rowing Championships. “I reflect on it fondly. Regardless of position, it felt effective,” says Parry, who finished fourth, beating both the reigning Olympic champion, Stefanos Ntouskos (GRE), and Norway’s Olympic silver medallist Kjetil Borch. “I felt delighted really, with a little touch of the obvious, ‘Aww, it’s right there [the medal].’
Photo NZL M2X
“I remember being slightly agitated that I was in the outside lane. The women’s eights were rowing up and their wash was coming over to me. It was annoying but I still felt invincible. ‘I’m going to perform. Whatever the result, that’s the result I deserve. And I’m ok with that.’”
It was an epic final. Cathartically Olli Zeidler won gold, ridding himself of the demons from Tokyo 2020 (seventh) and Munich 2022 (fourth), the latter being the Europeans Games in which the great German hope came to a standstill and missed a history-making moment in his hometown. Behind Zeidler, Dutchman Melvin Twellaar took silver ahead of Brit Graeme Thomas, who claimed his first world championship medal in the single.
“We called him the Gatekeeper,” says Parry of Thomas – revealing his race day tactics. “My goal was to keep him in my peripheral vision. If I had him there, I knew I was in and around the medal position. It was like, ‘A tussle with Graeme and you know you’re doing well.’”
Parry was satisfied that he delivered his best on the day, his performance lived up to his self-set standards. “That’s all I needed. Maybe with a bit more of a build up I could have kept pushing in the third 500, but I had what I had.”
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