For Atlanta, 1996, the Games’ inaugural lightweight rowing lit up Lake Lanier. In the Vaires-sur-Marne Stade Nautique, on the second day of August 2024, the sun set forever on the Olympic lightweight chapter, engraving the final champions of the discipline into history. The lightweights held an impromptu party at their last ever Olympic weigh-in, then went out to sock it to the world.
Lightweight stars crowned forever
Satisfyingly, immortality goes to two of the best crews of recent years, and the duos whose world best times will never be beaten. First up Irish blarney-experts Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan, the Tokyo reigning champions with an answer for everything, whether in the mix zone or on the water. They were followed by Britain’s golden girls, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, whose return from coming fourth by 0.01 seconds in Tokyo has yielded an unbeaten Olympiad together of 23 race victories and an unbreakable friendship. Everyone knew these crews could vanquish anyone, and they did, in style.
It was a moment to savour, as the umpire fired the lightweight men off the start. Pace, technique, excellence strung out across the course, time to relish every top-class stroke. The Italians shot off with nothing to lose, chased by Greece, taking turns in the lead. Behind them with Irish inevitability lurked the bowball of O’Donovan and McCarthy, snapping bites out of their advantage with every powerful stroke. It took until just after halfway for the Irish to level the Greeks and put Italy behind them, but only a few more strokes for them to begin to step on the gas and motor.
With 650m to go the Irish lead was a canvas short of clear water: a mile in lightweight terms. As they continued to drop the Greeks, Italy stamped on their footplates and lifted, determined to claim a medal. It was nip and tuck but at the line they were just ahead, helped by a recovery surge, to bag silver behind the inimitable, ever-great Irish leaving Greece with bronze.
“Every year since I’ve started rowing in the double, Italy have had really strong combinations,” said O’Donovan (IRL). “We were throwing everything at them in Lucerne and they were just unstoppable. Fortunately we were able to put in a very good training block in recent weeks. Fintan had recovered from some illness and injuries and he was really on fire this week.”
“We always try to catch the Irish, but they are real legends,” said Stefano Oppo (ITA). “We didn’t think too much today about the other crews, but more about us, and we did our best. The silver, for us it’s like a gold, it’s amazing,” said Gabriel Soares (ITA).
As the crowning glory of a stunning day, the lightweight women performed to their miraculous best, Grant and Craig proving one last, epic time that they are unbeatable. After the usual start – Romania off fast and confident – the British serenely took over at 400m gone, Romania unable to do much about their post-settle power. New Zealand in third tried to drop the other three crews while the GBR bow continued to slide steadily out ahead. But Greece weren’t having any of it, and came back fighting through into third position.
From there it was textbook stuff. No surprises, just good clean speed, ending three seconds quicker than the openweight W2x had done the day before in fairly similar conditions. Britain ahead of Romania ahead of Greece, and New Zealand exhausted in fourth, but happy that they could have given no more. For the winners, 0.01 seconds down three years ago turned into a 1.72 second lead by the alchemy of training, technical know-how and faith in their partnership. A single jump from fourth in Japan to the top step of an unprecedentedly meaningful podium in Paris, and the long-awaited dream come true. At the back of the field the USA lost a battle with the Irish for fifth. “If Ireland’s over in lane one, it’s hard to keep an eye on them when you’re bleeding from the eyeballs because you’re pulling so hard,” said Molly Reckford (USA).
“This Olympics was the grande finale,” said Grant (GBR). “Not every Olympian gets it right on the first try. And it’s not like we did anything wrong back in Tokyo. But we have put in so much work and we are such different and better people this time around. I think there was a certain inevitability to the racing today. We knew that we were capable of it.”
“Rowing has defined so much of our lives for so long,” said Craig (GBR), who was phoned by her 1988 LW2x world bronze medallist aunt while still at the medal ceremony. “But taking a step back in the aftermath of Tokyo and getting some perspective and realising that we are loved and valued regardless of how we do on the water, spurred us on and gave us more confidence to be even better versions of ourselves on the water.” They will perform together one last time at the Head of the Charles this autumn, a final sign-off to the partnership.
“It’s crazy, we’re really excited about it,” said Dimitra Kontou (GRE), who is not yet nineteen but already owns U23 and European medals as well as taking bronze after having to qualify. “It was my craziest dreams just being in a final at the age of 18.”
“There was so much pain in my legs I couldn’t feel anything,” said Jackie Kiddle (NZL). “You feel your competitors go beside you and there’s nothing you can do, you’re at your absolute physical limit, that’s where we found ourselves today.”
Sinkovics ride to glory on golden advice
Six weeks ago you wouldn’t have expected to see Martin and Valent Sinkovic on top of the podium. You might not even have expected them to reach the A-final. And nine months ago we were expecting them to race the double as they had since swapping back to it after M2- gold in Tokyo. Following 2023 M2x silver behind the Dutch, they took stock and, knowing that it took a different balance of skill and explosivity than the double, swapped to the pair. It had been qualified for Paris by the Loncaric twins Patrik and Anton, who gladly made way for their heroes.
But the Sinkovic brothers started to lose even more badly. Off the podium in Varese and Szeged, second at Lucerne, beaten by four different Olympic pairs this season. Their air of invincibility was gone and the omens didn’t look good. Until Paris. First across the line in round one, wiping the floor with Romania. First again in the semi, professionally despatching the ever-dangerous Swiss. Both the British — beaten in only one race of 2023, on paper the favourites — and the Croatians knew the final would be immense.
The off-key vibes of the Britons’ struggling second in their semi-final vanished as soon as they took the first stroke, charging off much faster than in early rounds, leaving nothing to chance. Their initial rivals were Romania while the Croatians languished in fifth and had to creep back under the radar while the fireworks went off up front. Weathering a thundering push from the Romanians, the British boat stayed in front, putting together the perfect race at the perfect time, cruising with length and power.
At 600m to go Croatia and the Swiss world champions, both now recovered from an underwhelming start, began to charge. They gained ground, but it was the Sinkovics who found a new and thundering gear with 300m to go. Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith (GBR) were still controlling the field, starting to wind up their sprint. But the Croatian surge was coming very fast, nearly a foot a stroke, and bit hard. The Britons sprinted, and again, but finally ran out of beans. Their legs were seizing with lactate resulting in a flubbed stroke just as the Sinkovics were about to pass them. The result was inevitable, there was nothing left. As the Swiss claimed bronze over Romania, it was Valent Sinkovic who marked his 36th birthday crossing the line as – now – a triple Olympic champion alongside his career partner, brother Martin.
Little did George and Wynne-Griffith know, but they had in fact been racing not just the Sinkovic brothers, but also the best pairs rowers in the world. There were effectively four in the boat, not two. In the doldrums of their 2024 season Martin and Valent were contacted by Drew Ginn (AUS) and Eric Murray (NZL), offering sixteen years of golden experience on how to make a pair go faster, which the brothers promptly took. Ironically it’s an offer the well-resourced British team would be unlikely ever to accept, even though GBR hasn’t won a pairs gold for twenty-two years.
