The final day of racing at the Paris Olympic Regatta saw four new crews crowned Olympic champions, and the Netherlands top the medal table. Olli Zeidler (GER) exorcized his Tokyo demons and denied Simon van Dorp (NED) a golden finish. Their season finale was put on hold until fellow finalist Yauheni Zalaty arrived at the venue, the neutral athlete’s bus had broken down on route to the course. While Zalaty struggled with his morning commute Karolien Florijn (NED) wasted no time dethroning the five-time Olympian Emma Twigg (NZL). This epic encounter between two great sportswoman ended with a show of mutual respect. Sandwiched between the singles both British eights underscored their post-Tokyo revival by winning a bronze and a gold medal each. And Romania’s doubling up openweight women emphatically ended their regatta on top of the podium.
Redemption (M1x)
Let’s start with Zeidler because we’ve waited long enough for this chapter of his story to be written. It’s hard to imagine a more intense, nausea-inducing, pressure cooker than an Olympic final but for Zeidler his mountain to climb came in the semi.
“After the race I spent a few moments in the cool down area saying goodbye to the demons of Tokyo. I did it in style with an Olympic record, faster than anyone at the Olympics has gone before. It was an amazing achievement.”
Zeidler handles a maelstrom of potential pressures: the prodigy of a three-generation strong gold-medal-winning rowing family; the aforementioned Olympic disaster-debut at Tokyo where the super talented youngster came fourth in the semi and missed a shot at the medals; the expectations of a proud rowing nation, who are without their traditional strength, and those of international rowing fans too. A heady mix.
“Tokyo almost broke me. I almost quit rowing. Coming back, teaming up with my father again… it has meant big, big sacrifices,” said Zeidler. “Just to mention my mum, who really struggled when my dad spent almost all of the day training with me. Bringing this medal home will mean a lot to her as well because now we have something to look at, and I can say ‘this was the reason for it.’”
Today he flew to gold unencumbered. “Today I was free in my mind to enjoy every stroke of this race. After 1000 meters I knew I would win, I still felt fresh and everything Simon tried I could easily respond. I was flying, it felt like a dream.”
Redemption for Zeidler arrived an hour later than planned. Zalaty described the stressful transport issues which caused the delay: “In fact we left at eight in the morning, we went there by bus, and the bus broke down on the way to the Stade Nautique. We told everyone beforehand, we asked the umpires and the organisers to tell the other competitors that we were late, then they decided to postpone the race.”
“I was very happy that I wasn’t on the water yet,” said Zeidler about the delay. “My dad and I smiled about it. One hour back or forth it was not a big issue for us.”
By 11:30am, the new race time, there was a steady tail wind, stronger than earlier in the day. Zeidler led early, as is his custom, but not by open water. Dutchman Simon van Dorp stayed in contact, as he had when he won in Lucerne, but here his arsenal proved ineffective. Behind the leaders Tom Mackintosh (NZL) and Zalaty tussled for third place, and the Greek Olympic champion Stefanos Ntouskos struggled at the back of the field.
With 500 to go a hint of clear water cracked open between the German and Dutch shells. Zeidler moved through the gears, and suddenly it was a rout, a supreme display of strength. With gold lost, the Dutchman’s reserves plummeted, his tank emptying at an alarming rate.
Zalaty pounced on silver, the stress of his morning commute only adding fuel to the fire, and van Dorp held on for bronze. Mackintosh (NZL) blew in the final few hundred and Belgium’s ex-lightweight Tim Brys picked through the carnage to earn himself an impressive fourth place finish.
“For me it was very tough,” said van Dorp. “I had been trying to chase Olli, and at some point my legs just said no. And I knew Yauheni has a very good sprint.” “The race was quite difficult,” said Zalaty. “All the opponents went forward to try and catch Olli but in the middle, I felt the other athletes slowed, and I would be able to be quicker.”
“I’m not feeling good because I have some issues and yesterday I didn’t sleep,” said Ntouskos. “Psychology is not good, and yesterday some issues with the federation. I don’t want to say now but it’s something that I didn’t like and this bothered my performance today. I go on 1500m, I tried a lot, but my body didn’t let me continue because I have slept [only] three hours. But ok I’m a fighter, and I will fight until the end. I will go to Los Angeles and I hope to be better. God will decide.”
New Era (W1x)
The baton passed to a new Olympic champion in the women’s single sculls. New Zealand’s Emma Twigg delivered her most competitive performance against two-time Dutch world champion Karolien Florijn. At halfway the Tokyo champion Twigg (NZL) trailed Florijn (NED) but maintained contact, her bowball overlapping Florijn’s stern canvas by a foot. In the third quarter, Twigg turned the screw with calculated ruthlessness, asking questions of Florijn.
“There was a moment where I thought I was going to keep going [past Karolien] but she had another gear in the tank,” said Twigg. “Credit to her, she’s an amazing girl and an amazing sculler and I’m just pleased that my 37-year-old body could keep up with the young buck.”
With 500m to go half a length separated the frontrunners, with Tara Rigney (AUS) and Viktorija Senkute (LTU) hunting down the last spot on the podium. As the buoys turned red Florijn unleashed a final push to dethrone the Olympic champion. Senkute cut down Rigney to deny the two-time world bronze medallist a spot on the podium.
“To be off the medal stand is obviously disappointing but those are some fast women’s singles out there and it’s an honour to get a chance to race with them, so I’m very happy for them,” said Kara Kohler (USA), the London 2012 medallist who finished fifth:. “I’m looking at the Lithuanian on the television just now, she’s had an incredible year this year, to scrape the last spot. I was about level with her at the thousand but she really put on the burners and outpaced me, and Tara too.”
“It was my maximum performance, so much respect for Emma, her fifth Olympic Games, she really wanted to have the gold medal as well,” said Florijn. “She had a very good start, right from the beginning she really put pressure on me so it was really great to race and I’m really proud I crossed the finish line first.”
“I was happy [Emma and Tara] were both beside me, and I think Tara didn’t have her best race. I really wished for her to have a medal but everyone wants to have it and today it’s Lithuania. [Tara] is such a great athlete. From the start she [Tara usually] pushes a bit more but today it was Emma, so I said ok today I watch a bit more on my right side. Also great, of course, for the Lithuanian sculler. All this field is so good, everyone wants to have the medals.”
“It was awesome, wasn’t it,” said Twigg. “I’m just super-proud that we had an amazing race and it was a spectacle for people. Karolien was always going to be the one to beat today, and she sent it out of the start. For me it was just hanging on there and challenging, unfortunately the juice ran out a bit too early. But I’m super proud of this. I’m super proud of the last three years.”
“There was a moment where I thought I was going to keep going [past Karolien] but she had another gear in the tank. Credit to her, she’s an amazing girl and an amazing sculler and I’m just pleased that my 37-year-old body could keep up with the young buck.”
Twigg was the first to congratulate Florijn, the current and former Olympic champions embracing on the medal dock. Later, in the media mixed zone Florijn was congratulated by her brother Finn, who said he was more stressed watching her race than he was racing his own Olympic-gold medal effort in the men’s quad. It was a good day for sibling rowers, as the eights races would prove.
Doubling up does the job (W8+)
With one Olympic champion felled in the preceding W1x race it was the turn of Canada’s W8+ to mount a defence of their Tokyo title. It would require supreme self-belief because despite winning in Lucerne, at Paris they were yet to cross the line first, beaten by the Americans in the rep and the British and Aussies in the heat. They went out hard and grabbed the lead, but lost it to the famously fast starting Romanians, who looked hyper-motivated.
This was Romania’s last chance to secure a gold medal from their doubling-up openweight women’s squad, whose up and down week has already delivered two silvers (W2x, W2-) but also a fourth place (W4-) before the same athletes put the eight on the water. Their supporters, in the stands were in full voice for every single stroke of the race, as Simona Radis (ROU) set the pace from the stroke seat.
Approaching the red buoys Romania snapped the elastic, leaving Canada and Great Britain in their wake, fighting for silver. “We are extremely happy, it is a great result for all of us. The only gold for a women’s team and we go home with maximum pride,” said Radis. “Our cox told us in the last 500m the gold was ours, but I didn’t believe it. I knew that we had to go for the finish line and here we are. We are Olympic champions,” said Maria Lehaci.
Great Britain held off America and Australia for bronze. “It was quite breathless, actually. I think I was really trying to focus on what Henry (Fieldman, cox) was saying at the time, because if I thought about the whole 2km, it was almost a bit overwhelming,” said Annie Campbell-Orde (GBR). “He said to do the best of our ability, and I think that we did that at that moment on that day.”
“We started this regatta pretty low ranked, and we got second, so we proved a lot of people wrong,” said cox Kristen Kit (CAN), who embraced strokewoman Abigail Dent (CAN) after the finish line. “What I love about this group of women is when we get backed into a corner, we fight, and we fight together, we do it together. It’s never over until it’s over, and these girls fought. They were still fighting right until the line – we were pushing as hard as we could to catch Romania. Hats off to them (Romania) because they are so dominant, but you know we are coming next quad(rennial). I won’t be a part of the boat but the young girls will.”
Don’t call it a comeback (M8+)
The penultimate race of the day saw favourites Great Britain hold their nerve in a nail-biting final made torturous for the British supporters by an inspired performance from the Dutchmen. USA went with the two race leaders, just a canvas back. Cox Harry Brightmore (GBR) pulled the trigger in the second half and his crew responded perfectly. They finished one second clear of Dutch, who held on to silver over the American bronze medallists.
“[I just started crying] five minutes ago actually, just when talking about family and stuff,” said a tearful Sholto Carnegie (GBR). “We’ve all grown up together [the eight], we’ve had such trust and such deep friendship, and when it really matters we’ve just leant on each other, just believed. We had to stay strong, and know what it takes to step up when it really matters because it’s really hard. The nerves, and the pressure, and everything. All week we’ve just leant on each other. And we rose, and that’s that.”
“The brain turns to liquid and dribbles out of your ears,” said Jacob Dawson (GBR), after being asked in the post-race press conference about how hard an eights race is and what it feels like in the final stages. “It flies by, [especially] with the adrenaline and the crowds. You have to take it by the scruff the neck,” said his teammate Tom Digby.
“I’m a fan of fantasy, but this feeling is really magical. I’ve not experienced anything like it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Dutch four-seat Ruben Knab. “I can’t remember anything. At the start line you just close your eyes and trust your instincts and you have to do as much as you can within those five minutes and the result is what it is.”
“There’s a great saying, ‘you either win or you learn’, and we did a lot of learning the past three years. All that paved the way for this performance today, to come away with a medal,” said USA strokeman Pieter Quinton. His teammate Nick Rusher added: “We’ve definitely gotten faster and faster. Obviously, the goal would be to win a gold medal at LA, on home soil. For a lot of us, it’s our first Olympic Games, so it’s definitely a huge motivating factor to come back.”
Last-minute seat-swapping in the Australian line-up did little to help their cause. Questions will be asked of the Aussie strategy to prioritise their eights, both of whom finished outside the medals. It was sixth for the men’s and fourth for the women.
Small Finals
Alexandra Foester (GER) sculled through the Tokyo bronze medallist and early race leader Magdalena Lobnig (AUT) to claim seventh overall and her second win of the regatta. On the men’s side Sverri Nielsen (DEN) fell to the late-charging Romanian Mihai Chiruta (ROU). And Ryuta Arakawa (JPN) continues to make history, his ninth place is the best Olympic finish in the men’s single sculls from any Asian nation.
