Olympic Impressions from Schinias/Athens. Day 12 - Wednesday 25th August 2004.
This is not intended to be commentary, as that is well covered via TV, radio, the FISA website and the newspapers. Plus it's difficult to get time amongst the other jobs. Here are odd bits and pieces those following the Games may find interesting.
Crackers being interviewed by the BBC just after the four won: some may have noticed that at one stage he was bent double under the cameras, apparently in agony. Instead, it was just because he was crying so hard he felt useless on camera, so ducked underneath to get out of eyesight.
That USA/NOR men's double fiasco. It was a seven-boat final in the end, as most of you probably know. Before we had all the facts, I was contacted by a Dutch lightweight oarsman who had been involved in a dead heat in Lucerne last year. I don't have a record of this myself, as we had a phenomenally busy weekend with a full British team and several ill, but it was the semifinals of the lightweight men's coxless fours, and he said they weren't allowed a 7-boat final. Apparently because it was clearly a dead-heat, the rules push for a re-row, which they did. [Particularly nasty for lightweights, and if memory serves, they did it very early the next day, to give time for a weigh-in again.] Anyway, apparently the Olympic dead-heat was different, because according to FISA the photo was "inconclusive". I believe this to mean insufficiently clear that they could determine whether or not the bowballs crossed at precisely the same time - or maybe the difference between them was less than the resolution of the photofinish. Anyway, that's what allowed an apparently different interpretation of the rules, which I suspect both crews appreciated. I presume it means the winner of the B final for M2x (our GBR double) actually finish eighth, though I haven't checked it yet.
The Aussie women's eight in the final. Boy was that a race. I put in my 'commentary' wibble for the M8+ that I missed the women - that was slightly inexact. I did miss seeing all but the end, for the reason that I was round at the friends-and-family grandstand next to the media tribune, trying to find some of the GBR parents I know to say hello, congratulations and get their perspective on the weekend. It proved too difficult to barge my way through the crowds, so I settled for watching the end of the W8+ in a mass of cheering hooligans. Ms Robbins' collapse seemed to happen right in front of us - I certainly thought she'd caught a crab from the way she was lying down in the boat. I could see the girl behind bending over her as the eight spidered its way slowly towards the finish line. I did think they were well down when it happened, however - but I didn't have a great viewpoint, and haven't looked at the stats yet. After that, there was much muttering - and for the next two days people were carrying editions of the Sydney Morning Herald around reading about the home reaction.
The man with the biggest get-out-of-jail-free card in the world, Mike Teti, was standing right behind me at the interview mix zone, as we waited for the men's eights to come in. When I asked him how he felt to have his crew win the first US Olympic rowing gold for 20 years and the first eights gold for 40, he said without a pause - "Relieved!" I wonder if this means he will keep his job for an Olympiad - no doubt we will hear all about it soon enough. He told me he'd not thought the USA M4- could win in Lucerne, and hinted that he'd almost been jesting when he said "if you can win that, you can go in any crew". He was sitting on the beach when they did it, and very soon got a phone call saying "well we did it Mike, and we'd like to go in the eight." So that's how quickly selection can be settled. Easy, eh Jurgen? From the heat and final, it's obvious that the final USA M8+ combination had a lactate-inducing hammer-blow change of pace, which they could have pulled at any point. By doing it with roughly 700 gone, they fooled everyone who was expecting it to come later, and blew the demoralised Canadians apart.
Two silver medallists who deserve extra acclaim - Alison Mowbray (GBR W4x) and Barney Williams (CAN M4-). Alison, bow of our quad, gathered the crew together on the raft after they came in, and reminded them how good Olympic silver was, and not to be downhearted. Barney did more or less the same with his four out on the lake a day earlier, standing up and turning round in the stroke seat to emphasise his point. The result was two ambitious and determined crews making a really creditable effort at being dignified in what they privately saw as defeat. The bit I like best was what Jake Herschmiller said to Chris Dodd - Doddie's Independent article was cut out completely, but you should be getting this and other tales in the next edition of Regatta, UK subscribers. Anyway, for those who don't read Regatta, Jake apparently commented that "I'm honoured to get silver. Jurgen Grobler sacrificed the British men's coxless pair and men's eight, to race me" (or words to that effect.) Nice perspective. Anyway, to all the silver and bronze medallists who hoped for better, and those who just missed on on medals or A-finals, remember that for most of us, even competing at the Olympics is impossible to dream of, and medals of any colour are so far out of reach they might as well be sitting on Mars. To achieve something 99.99% of the world would like and only 0.0001% can even aim for, is pretty special.
Rachel Quarrell at the 2004 Olympics.