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.
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
1/1
Drag
“[Drew and Eric] gave us very good tips. They know how to row the pair, and they helped us a lot,” said Valent (CRO) earlier in the week. “Thanks to them, for sure”. “They sent us a message, saying if you want help, just tell us, and we asked their help,” added Martin. “I think it would be very stupid not to ask [it]”. On the day the brothers were stupefied with their success. “I don’t know what happened during the race, but we did it,” said Martin. “This [medal] is even more special because of the tough year we had,” said Valent. “Nothing went our way, we couldn’t find ourselves. Then the cherry on the top, midway through the race we thought we couldn’t get the medal and then we found our rhythm, we found our togetherness.”
“We had the perfect race from start pretty much to finish,” said George (GBR). “We probably didn’t have the perfect last five strokes but we were done, we were clinging on. To be that close is really special. The Olympics is a pressure cooker. To be able to put out our best race when it really mattered, and we were seriously, seriously brave with it, especially after not the perfect semi. Despite the last three strokes, with a bit of hindsight we’ll be incredibly proud of what we achieved.”
“It feels good having a medal around my neck that nobody can take away from us. Super good feeling,” said Andrin Gulich (SUI).
Dutch darlings destroy Australia
Amongst the squadron of classy Dutch boats their women’s pair stands out. Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester haven’t lost a final for over a year, and effortlessly posted the quickest times of their event in both their heat and semi. Ranked against them was the combined might of Romania (European champions Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel), Australia (the ever-excellent Jess Morrison and Annabel McIntyre) and pairs from Lithuania and the USA always capable of causing disruption. With two golds and two silvers for the Dutch already in the bag, what could these two add?
The start was a flyer, Clevering and Meester (NED) speeding out beautifully and Australia initially best of the rest but clear water down. While everyone else was spending energy, the Dutch were soaring away, strong and powerful, to a more than 2-length lead. Australia and Lithuania were in the medal positions, but trouble was coming. In a move reminiscent of the Croatian oarsmen, Anghel and Vrinceanu began to turn the screw, slicing inexorably through the USA, the Greeks then Lithuania, to challenge Australia. Time to take the rate up.
Spotting the peril Australia lifted, bringing them closer to the leaders. By now the Dutch were rocking away at rate 40, rowing shorter than we usually see, but this was the Olympics: if you don’t lift the rate then someone else will. As four boats in a row barged towards them, the finish line came up fast, and the job was done. Gold, emphatically and without fuss, to put the Netherlands on top of the medal table, with Romania then Australia taking the remaining medals as the USA’s final effort ran out.
“It’s such a great, great feeling,” said Meester (NED). “I actually kind of knew from the halfway point we were not going to give this away.” “We’ve moved on the last eight years together now,” said Clevering. “We were like ‘maybe this is our last race together now, let’s f***ing go!”
“We are feeling very happy,” said Vrinceanu (ROU). “It was our destiny. It’s a silver medal, but it’s a gold one for me.” “It’s tough to sit in second most of the way and get pipped on the line, that stings a little bit,” said Morrison (AUS). “That’s what happens sometimes, it’s the risk you take racing in a 2000m rowing race”.
France snatch partial triumph from disaster with B-final wins
After the day-one heroics hosts France have found it tough going, qualifying just one boat, their M2x, for the finals. But on the last day they had crews in action who snatched two wins in the B-finals, giving their supporters reason to cheer themselves hoarse before the France-less medal races got underway. Both their B-final lightweight doubles surged out fast, and were equally quickly clawed back before having to kick up the rate and zoom to the line.
Hugo Beurey and Ferdinand Ludwig lost their initial lead to the crafty Spanish, but along with Belgium and Mexico made sure they didn’t get away, then jacked the pace as the buoys turned red. They sprinted past Spain and left Belgium in their wash for a coveted seventh place, ‘best of the rest’. Their female team-mates Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove were battling disappointment at having no chance to add to their silver from Tokyo, and surged past Canada, who had towed them away from the pack after swapping leads several times.
Their near neighbour, Monaco’s Quentin Antognelli, startled the rest of the M1x D-final by taking off like a marauding rocket with 400m to go, just as everyone else was about to find out whether or not Hong Kong could fend off Slovenia and India. The answer was yes, but not until Antognelli had raided the bank and posted a 1:40 split for the last 500m to finish first.
The women’s pairs B-final was led home by Spain, after several false starts when they had been swapping position with Chile. When the South Americans had to reel in Spain for the third time they fell short of the power needed, letting the eventual winners go and then being rowed through by Ireland too. The men’s B-final became a Kiwi party well before halfway, the rest of the field racing the last 500m alongside one another. By the line the various dashes and rate-hikes had developed into a Lithuania versus South Africa battle, won by the Stankunas twins (LTU) second behind New Zealand.
