The U.S. men’s four that won gold at the Paris Olympics, consisting of Nicholas Mead, Justin Best, Michael Grady, Liam Corrigan, has been named a finalist for World Rowing Crew of the Year.
To continue reading…
This article is exclusively for Rowing News subscribers. For as little as $5 a month, you can get access to the best quality, independent reporting on all the issues that matter to the North American rowing community.
Already a subscriber? Login
“My expectations were that those guys would do everything that they possibly could to win,” recalled Casey Galvanek, coach of the men’s four. “What I talked to them about was having to go certain speeds and hitting those numbers over the course would increase the probably of getting a medal. Everything on the day has to go perfectly for you to win a gold and that’s not solely up to you. Everything can go perfectly for you but you just never know what a competitors ultimate speed is.”
Galvanek had the privilege of watching Mead, Best, Grady and Corrigan progress through the USRowing development system all the way up to Olympic gold medalists.
“The first time I ever interacted with Justin his parents had asked USRowing about where they could send him to get coaching in the single,” laughed Galvanek. “I didn’t know the kid—I had him do some drills and had him flip which was hilarious. He went on to the Junior team and then the U23 team and had such amazing success which is pretty exciting.”
The crew competed together at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and won a silver medal after falling short of the gold medal Great Britain crew by two seconds went on to win gold at the Paris Olympics by .85 margin over New Zealand and a three second margin over Great Britain.
“They’re a good group of guys—willing to make changes, which is always the number one thing, and willing to do anything necessary to increase the probability of an opportunity to win a gold,” said Galvanek. “There are differing levels of push back from different athletes—not these ones. The athletes that are willing to put everything on the line and take risks have the greatest rewards and these guys certainly did that.”
The Paris gold medal men’s quadruple sculls from the Netherlands and the gold medal men’s eight from Great Britain have also been named finalists in the category. The 2024 World Rowing Awards will take place during a gala dinner on Sunday, November 9, 2024, in Seville, Spain.
