PARIS — There is emotional value in every Olympic medal, but the return on investment varies wildly, and that will likely be an issue for Rowing Canada, an organization that brought just two boats to these Games and will head home with one medal.
That ROI sounds better than it is.
On Saturday, the organization’s athletes, coaches and officials celebrated for the first time during the Olympic regatta at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. Their women’s eights followed Tokyo gold with Paris silver, and they beat the odds, as well as the bronze medallists from Great Britain, though just barely, with .67 seconds to spare after 2,000 metres of gruelling effort and intensity.
The Romanians, who won the world championships in both 2022 and 2023, are still the class of the field, and won going away on Saturday, finishing more than four seconds clear of Canada, whose status as underdogs was cemented after a poor heats race last week sent them to the repechage.
They had finished third at the 2022 worlds and fifth in 2023, and it was clear they were taking on water, so they had to make some changes. On Saturday, half of them were new to the boat for this Olympic cycle, two of them were complete Games rookies, and experience counts for plenty in this game.
“Our heats race was a little rough, but I think we had to work out some of the nerves and we do a lot better when we’re backed into a corner, so the reps race was pretty exciting, we went out there and gave it everything, but we were real excited to show the world what we had today,” said Abby Dent, one of the Olympic rookies in the boat, along with Maya Meschkuleit. “It was a pretty surreal experience for the two of us, but having the others in the boat who had already gone through the experience really helped.”
Sydney Payne was there in Tokyo when the eights were on top of their game and the world of rowing. The colour of the medal from that race does not match the medal from this one, but the effort and feeling of pride does, and there is value in that too.
“It is feeling amazing and it’s hard to not compare both races but both of them we left everything we had out on the course and we gave it everything from stroke one so in that way they feel awfully similar and I just have immense pride for both races and both crews,” said Payne.
On both race days, they all stepped up, and in the immediacy of a silver afterglow, everything looks promising.
“The future is bright for rowing in Canada,” said Kristina Walker. “We’ve got some incredible coaches. Tom Morris is one of them; he’s totally changed our group. It’s about building upon a plan and being able to execute that plan the best that we know how, which helped us to come out with a silver today. It’s bright in Canada, and we encourage everyone to get out in a boat and enjoy this sport, because ultimately that’s what it’s about.”
On one level, absolutely. On the bottom line, however, it is about getting more bang for the bucks. Own The Podium directed $11.6 million in Sport Canada funding to Rowing Canada in the three years since the Tokyo Olympics. That’s a tonne. Only athletics ($13.8 million) and swimming ($13.6 million) received more, and the pool has already produced five medals, two of them gold, while there is plenty to be mined from the track and the field team at these Games. Athletics Canada has developed strength and depth across most event groups and should come back home with perhaps half a dozen medals.
The rowing return is one silver. The women’s eights program has delivered, but increasingly in a vacuum. On Saturday, the crew was Jessica Sevick, Caileigh Filmer, Meschkuleit, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Avalon Wasteneys, Payne, Walker, Dent and Kit. High on the scent of silver, they see a bright future.
“I am just completely fulfilled and everyone in the world better watch out because Canadian rowing is here and it’s not leaving any time soon,” said Filmer.
It could be argued that Canadian rowing has gone largely AWOL and has to make a valiant return. There wasn’t a male Canadian rower on the premises.
“We recognize that there is a gap specific to men’s rowing in Canada that needs to be addressed,” Rowing Canada’s high performance director Adam Parfitt told Canadian Press in May, after the men’s eights failed to qualify for Paris 2024. “I feel confident that in collaboration with our partners across the country, we can reinvigorate this pipeline. This is certainly a priority for us moving forward into the next Olympic quadrennial.”
The only other boat here, Jenny Casson and Jill Moffatt in the lightweight women’s double sculls, had a tough outing and wound up second in the B final. Their discipline is being phased out of the Olympics and they were unable to save their best for last.
For a nation that used to send 30 or 40 rowers to a Games and scooped medals by twos, threes and occasionally fours out of the flat water, the last few Olympic cycles have surely been a serious letdown. A four-medal haul from Beijing 2008 stands out, when compared to one each from London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and these Games. It seems well past time for a rebuild.