The U.S. men’s eight won the bronze medal on Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, giving the U.S. two medals at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 regatta.
The men’s eight crew of Rielly Milne (Woodinville, Wash./University of Washington/California Rowing Club), Pieter Quinton (Portland, Ore./Harvard University/California Rowing Club), Evan Olson (Bothell, Wash./University of Washington/Seattle Scullers/Penn AC), Peter Chatain (Winnetka, Ill./Stanford University/California Rowing Club), Chris Carlson (Bedford, N.H./University of Washington/New York Athletic Club), Clark Dean (Sarasota, Fla./Harvard University/Boston Rowing Federation), Christian Tabash (Alexandria, Va./Harvard University/University of California, Berkeley/USRowing Training Center – Sarasota), Nick Rusher (West Bend, Wis./Yale University/California Rowing Club), and Henry Hollingsworth (Dover, Mass./Brown University/California Rowing Club) moved into bronze-medal position as the crews approached the 500-meter mark, just off the pace being set by Great Britain and the Netherlands. The Dutch crew was able to inch its bowball ahead in the second quarter of the race before the British boat took the lead back in the third 500 meters. Entering the final 500 meters, the U.S. had cut almost a second off the Netherlands’ lead for the silver medal position, but the Dutch crew was able to hold off the challenge during the sprint.
“We had a good start,” Tabash said. “We were aggressive. I think there was a strong tailwind, which compresses a lot of margins, and I think that one of our strengths is our ability to change speeds. In hindsight, we found it a bit more difficult to close in at the very end. The speeds were quicker; the margins were tighter, and we just left a little too much for too late.”
Great Britain won the race in a 5:22.88, with the Netherlands clocking a 5:23.92. The U.S. finished with a time of 5:25.28. For the U.S., it was the first medal in the event since 2008, when the crew also won bronze. It was the 17th time in Olympic history that the U.S. has won a medal in the event.
“We’ve said it before every race, but we’ve never really had a flat piece, and we’ve been training for not a super long time compared to some of these other crews, but for an American eight, we’ve been together for a long time,” Dean said. “We all knew if we went out there and had something that was around the level that we’ve done in practice, we’d have a good result. It wasn’t gold. It wasn’t silver, but it got us on the podium, and I think that I speak for everyone when I say that we’re really proud of what we did. It was a super-fast, competitive race, and I think that we were in it the whole time.”
Women’s single sculler Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), a three-time Olympian, finished fifth in today’s final. The Netherlands’ Karolien Florijn, the defending world champion, and New Zealand’s Emma Twigg, the defending Olympic champion, took the race out fast to establish themselves at the head of the field just 500 meters into the race. Kohler got off the line in sixth place but moved into fourth place in the second 500 meters, just behind Australia’s Tara Rigney in third. Kohler and Lithuania’s Viktorija Senkute began to push Rigney in the third 500 meters and as the scullers entered the final quarter of the race, Senkute had pulled ahead of Kohler and was closing on Rigney. Florijn was able to hold off Twigg’s sprint to win the gold medal in a 7:17.28, with Twigg taking silver in a 7:19.14. Senkute passed Rigney to earn the bronze medal in a 7:20.85. Kohler finished with a time of 7:25.07.
“I would say that I appreciate (racing in the A final) a lot more and the sacrifice and work that goes into getting into an A final,” Kohler said. “To be off the medal stand is obviously disappointing, but those are some fast women’s singles out there, and it’s an honor to get the chance to race with them. I’m very happy for them.”
The women’s eight of coxswain Nina Castagna (Cincinnati, Ohio/University of Washington/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Charlotte Buck(Nyack, N.Y./Columbia University/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y./Harvard University/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Claire Collins (McLean, Va./Princeton University/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y./Ithaca College/California Rowing Club), Regina Salmons (Methuen, Mass./University of Pennsylvania/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Madeleine Wanamaker (Neenah, Wis./University of Wisconsin/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), Margaret Hedeman (Concord, Mass./Yale University/USRowing Training Center – Princeton), and Molly Bruggeman (Dayton, Ohio/University of Notre Dame/USRowing Training Center – Princeton) also finished fifth in the final. The U.S. sat in fourth position at the midway point, just off the medal pace, and was still within striking distance coming into the final 500 meters. However, the Americans were unable to chase down one of the medal spots. Romania won the race in a 5:54.39, finishing over four seconds ahead of Canada, which took the silver in a 5:58.84. Great Britain won bronze in a 5:59.51. The U.S. finished with a time of 6:01.73.
“It was a dogfight all the way down the course,” Musnicki said. “The women’s eight field is deep and formidable, and we went into it after our rep with concrete things that we wanted to work on and execute, and I think we did those things and just fought the entire way all the way down the course. The nature of sport is that you don’t always win, and that’s kind of the harsh reality of it. We ended up on the back side of it today, but I’m really proud of what this boat put together and the campaign that we did, and we stayed together, all nine of us, through it all. It’s obviously very disappointing but, again, that is the nature of elite sports.”
After just missing the A/B semifinal after finishing fourth in his quarterfinal, first-time Olympian Jacob Plihal (Vashon Island, Wash./Northeastern University/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) wanted to make a statement in Saturday’s C final of the men’s single sculls, and he was able to do that with an open-water win to finish 13th overall. Plihal took the lead one minute into the race and continued to row away from the field the rest of the race. The American held a half-deck lead at 500 meters and a three-quarters length lead at the halfway point. Plihal continued to extend his advantage to open water with 500 meters to go and held that over the final stretch of the race. Plihal clocked a 6:41.97 to win the race by nearly three second over Bulgaria’s Kristian Vasilev. Brazil’s Lucas Verthein Ferreira, who raced in second for the first three quarters of the race, finished third. Plihal’s 13th-place finish is the best for an American in the event since an 11th-place finishing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
“The Pan Am development, that was really helpful for me,” Plihal said. “That gave me two opportunities between the qualifier and the actual Games to get three races a piece down in Chile and somewhat of a whole of international field. That experience and world cup last year has been really good for getting me primed to race the single at this level, and I don’t think that I would have made it through (Final Olympic Qualification Regatta) had I not had that experience. To be able to have a bit of a ‘statement win’ was great, and I think that was the best race that I’ve put together.”
For the U.S., the two overall medals equaled the medal count from 2016 Rio, after getting shut out in Tokyo. In total, the U.S. has now won 91 medals in Olympic rowing.
In total, the U.S. qualified 12 crews for the Olympics including the women’s single sculls, men’s single sculls, women’s double sculls, men’s double sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls, women’s quadruple sculls, women’s pair, men’s pair, women’s four, men’s four, women’s eight and men’s eight. The U.S. led the way with Romania in qualifying the most boats to race in Paris.
Of the 42 athletes who will be competing in Paris, 17 are returning Olympians with three Olympic medals amongst them. Thirty-eight have competed on previous senior national teams, while four will be making their senior team debuts.
USRowing would like to thank our national team sponsors including our Official Boat Supplier for the U.S. Senior, Under 23, and Para Rowing National Teams, Filippi Lido; our Official Apparel Provider, 776BC; our Official Partner, Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., our Exclusive Supplement Supplier, Thorne HealthTech; our Official Performance Electronics Outfitter, Nielsen-Kellerman; the National Rowing Foundation; and TrainingPeaks, the Official Training and Coaching Software of USRowing’s High Performance Team.
