Paris Olympics Day Five, Agony and Ecstasy

Paris, France

6 minute read
Words Rachel Quarrell
Photography Benedict Tufnell
Published 31.07.24

The A-final: the last race, the last challenge. Focus on the process, say the athletes, but this is one of the biggest things they will ever do. The first stroke feels like the millions of other strokes you have taken, off thousands of other starts. But this time, there is much more at stake.

Oranjeboot on top again

The first rowing golds of Paris 2024 were full of desires fulfilled, hearts broken, and emotions poured out. For Italy, it was a silver which broke through the reserve, their men’s quad finally claiming the medal this crew had long wanted in honour of their lost friend Filippo Mondelli, who died of cancer a year before he would have competed in the M4x at the Tokyo Olympics with three of this year’s quartet.

They were runners-up to the Dutch, the world and world cup champions who had always looked likely to boss the contest, but for Italy it was everything, a medal whatever the colour, sixteen years after the country’s last quads podium at the Olympics. The Netherlands showed their usual effortless superiority to lead the final out ahead of the Italians, Britain and Poland lurking behind ready to pick up the pieces if either fell apart.

Neither did, and Poland had Britain’s measure right from the start, leading to the top four at the 2023 worlds finishing in exactly the same order as last year. Italy gave gold a seriously good go, but the velvety-smooth Dutch power was easily their match, knocking any pretensions on the head. No push could get past them, the orange-clad machine trucked on. For stern pair Tone Weiten and Koen Metsemakers a second gold in a row, for their new recruits Finn Florijn and Leonard van Lierop, the chance to join what is rapidly becoming a dynasty.

“It was ‘row out fast, and keep going’,” said Weiten. “It was nice that they pushed us, it was a good race for us,” said Florijn.

It didn’t matter, the Italian quartet were weeping with delight and pent-up emotion, and very proud of their elegant silver medals as the Dutch were garlanded with gold. “I have tears in my eyes,” said Rambaldi (ITA M4x), “because this is the last medal I want to put in my room. I want to thank my family, my girlfriend and Filippo. [His] was a big loss for our rowing family and his family, and I am very happy to take this medal in the boat of Filippo, in front of his family. Last time we had his name [on the boat] but now he is in our mind.”

Poland, who have not won an Olympic M4x medal since their predecessors bossed the entire Beijing Olympiad, were delighted. But for the British, particularly stroke Graeme Thomas, who was selected for the Rio quad before falling ill and then moved to the Tokyo double that finished fourth, two seconds behind the Poles felt like a lifetime. Their mid-race push didn’t work as well as hoped, and the Poles then held the cosh over them the whole way. “I’m absolutely gutted,” said Thomas, choking back sobs. “I want to say a big thanks to the [medical] team. Twelve months ago I had a back operation and probably shouldn’t be here, but I got myself back and we left absolutely everything out there today. I’m gutted but proud of what we did.”

Spectacular photofinish makes history

For the women, 2000 metres and over a thousand heartbeats per athlete came down to a single moment, the difference between heroics and heartbreak, and a margin of 0.15 seconds between silver and gold. Two crews had stood out in the W4x field during the last two years, the Netherlands and Britain, having dogged one another up and down medal rafts since the 2022 European championships. In 2023 the Dutch led out and were closed on inexorably by the British, capped by a final sprint. Might it happen again?

Ukraine, their hearts full of national pride and keen to show that their team is resilient despite training disrupted by war, sped off quickly, but couldn’t convert that to a full lead after the Dutch strode out strongly, rhythm putting them firmly in charge. Britain were off the blocks more slowly, but started picking up distance in the second 250m, before powering on to join the Dutch at the front. This displaced Ukraine to third, and meanwhile the Dutch started killing off British moves, keeping their noses in front. So it continued until well after the buoys had turned red.

There’s a point in an Olympic final when spectators start thinking they know the outcome. As the Dutch lead stayed at just over a second, through 1500m, then 1750m, then 1850m gone, victory for them looked certain. Gold within reach, the payback for a sudden rearrangement of their team’s line-ups last year. Ukraine were fading under a combined assault from Switzerland and Germany: the Germans were about to clinch bronze with the quickest split of the whole race. 1900m and the Brits just weren’t moving: destiny was waiting for the Dutch.

Then, inside the GBR boat, bow Lauren Henry called to go “Now!” In a handful of strokes even more dramatic than their 2023 finish sprint, they jacked the rate up two pips and shifted fast. On the stroke before the line, they had caught the Dutch but were not reliably ahead. A stroke later, GBR surging forwards as NED surged back, they crossed the line with perfect timing.

A moment of uncertainty, then shrieks and celebrations as the British oarswomen spotted the photofinish putting them first by 0.15 seconds, on the big screen. Twenty-four years after Britain’s W4x gained the nation’s first women’s Olympic medal by a photofinish, their successors claimed the first quads gold for the country.

“That moment was just ecstatic,” said Henry. “We always think we have a chance,” she added. “We’ve come back from quite a long way before. If we ever believe it’s over then we’ve lost the race, so no matter how far down, we’ll always have belief until we cross that finish line.”

Lola Anderson, the GB three-seat, fought back the tears as she spoke of her childhood dreams of reaching this moment, written in a diary and rescued after being discarded in the bin by her father who died of cancer in 2019, and about her self-belief. “I think young girls out there struggle to see themselves as strong, athletic individuals, but I think that’s changing now. My dad saw it before I did, and saw the potential I had, but that potential wouldn’t have been unlocked without the girls that crossed the line with me today, so I think he would be very very proud if he was here today.”

“It just shows you have to persevere and learn from those experiences, use them as positives,” said Hannah Scott (GBR two-seat), on coming back from being seventh in Tokyo. “It’s all about keeping strong and that’s what we showed today, on the last stroke. “First time Olympics – these girls are gold medallists but it’s not always like that. To anybody who’s maybe not had the best first games, that’s OK.”

The Dutch quad were coming to terms with a defeat they cannot, for 1990 metres, have expected, but they did win a silver medal, something many Olympians can never dream of. “It’s like a mix of happy and sad, we were really close and you only have this opportunity once in four years,” said Roos de Jong (NED). “We went out really brave and the middle part of our race was very strong. We already knew from last year that they had a really strong finish so I was a little bit scared. The power in our boat was running out a little bit.”

Tense semi-finals turn the screws

Earlier in the day the pairs and lightweight doubles semi-finals added an early edge to proceedings, an air of desperation as the lightweights in particular battled to go through to their last finals and the pattern of what might happen in the medal races began to take shape.

The women’s pairs saw heat winners Australia and the Netherlands win their semis, Romania content to sit behind the Dutch while Greece picked up the third place ahead of Denmark. This puts all the Danish women’s sweep boats into the B-finals, but their squad looks likely to continue its rise in rowing achievement during the next Olympiad. In the other race the USA pulled a blinder from the start, unable to catch the excellent 2023 silver medallists (AUS), and Lithuania’s best crew demolished Chile to make sure of the last qualifying slot.

In the men’s pairs you’d need to have your head in the sand not to realise that the Sinkovic brothers (CRO) have come good at exactly the right time. Their win was a few hundredths of a second slower than that of Romania in the second heat, but both crews looked solidly in charge. “Definitely the best rowing,” said Martin Sinkovic (CRO). “We worked a lot on our technique, we feel comfortable in the pair and that’s really rare, it’s nice.” “This is our fourth Olympic final,” said his brother Valent. “We need to be calm and expect everything. Because it’s Olympic final you can expect everything. Somebody will probably start a little bit faster than they [usually] can, but we just need to race our race and then after 1000m, give our best”. (Thanks for telling us your race tactics Valent!)

Britain’s world champs runners-up looked slightly hobbled compared with usual, letting Romania take too much of a lead and giving themselves a mountain to climb. They settled for second, as Switzerland did behind Croatia, while the Irish and Spanish bagged the last final slots. “All bets are off for Friday,” said Ollie Wynne-Griffith (GBR). “This time last year we won our semi-final and were turned over in the final, so for me it’s just about us going out on Friday and executing our best race to get a result we’re really really proud of.”

“We’ve won every race [this year] by having this nice burn through the race and taking people apart in the second half,” added his crew-mate Tom George. “Everyone sees that every time you do it and I think that will ultimately lead people to try different things. Today Romania jumped out on us, and we probably stayed a bit too calm, we probably gave them a bit too much distance. We probably just need to be a bit more aggressive in the first 25-30 strokes to make sure we’re at the front of the field like every other race we’ve done.” (Another insight into Friday’s tactics?)

The lightweight men’s semis were chalk and cheese, a thrilling chase and a serene domination by legends. Italy were pursued down the entire course by Greece’s cheeky repechage winners, but the 2023 bronze medallists were intent upon winning. Greece gave up a stroke before the line, then promptly celebrated qualifying ahead of Norway. By contrast Irish defending champions Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan, who have got thoroughly inside the heads of all their rivals, played all their cards in the correct order to carve out a lead before halfway, sapping the energy of the French who to the home crowd’s dismay faded to fourth a smidge behind Switzerland and Czechia.

On the subject of getting inside people’s heads, Row360 has found far too many LW2x clearly convinced that the British world champions, unbeaten in this line-up during the Olympiad, have no weaknesses. Wednesday again demonstrated their strength, the Kiwis initially staying with them, then unceremoniously dumped when the GBR double hardened fractionally at 1200m gone, which took them clear and able to finish rating 33. “It felt pretty in hand to be honest,” said Imogen Grant (GBR).

The US women’s lightweights pulled out all the stops to get through Poland, while France lost out again in a three-way battle for the two places behind Romania in the other semi. Greece and Ireland did the job, completing what is likely to be a very tight final. “It was a dogfight out there, this is the sort of race where people go crazy and pull out the sort of moves you’ve never seen before, but we we stayed calm and trusted each other, and when I said ‘go’ Michelle went,” said Molly Reckford (USA).

Places 13 to 18 on offer

The C/D semis of the singles – the deepest events of the Games – are poignant. Especially when those who hoped to make the A/B semis or even the medal final have to remotivate themselves to battle for the C-final, which is something many scullers can’t even think of achieving. The men’s singles saw the USA’s Jacob Plihal and Brazilian Lucas Verthein Ferreira lead the way, while Algeria’s Sid Ali Boudina guaranteed his highest ever finish against openweights despite coming through the repechage.

The women’s singles C/D semis went to form, the six repechage qualifiers ending up together in the D-final while Serbia’s Jovana Arsic, surprised to find herself off the medal track after capturing bronze at the European championships, was by far the quickest sculler of the two races.