First things first, on Saturday we saw Michelle Guerette of the USA win
silver in an amazing come-from-behind performance. At the 500 meter mark,
she was in 5th place, 4th at the 1000, 3rd at the 1500, and finally
sprinted for the silver. What an outstanding performance from Michelle!
China also took silver in the women's pair, which was also an impressive
result considering they were way down at the 1000. In fact, it seems the
Chinese are amazing sprinters because they came back from 4th place the
next day to take GOLD in the women's quad. This was China's first ever
Olympic gold in rowing, so it was amazing to be there to see this piece of
rowing history. The pictures of the Chinese athletes tearing up at the
medals dock have been all over the TV coverage here, and we were there to
see it happen live!
As expected, the only US team boats that delivered medals were the eights.
The women were basically in command the entire race. They were challenged
by the Netherlands and Canada, but maintained their lead to take the GOLD!
Go USA!
The men faced a far tougher race. They were last at the 500 but pulled off
a huge move in the second 1000 and moved into third behind Canada and the
UK. They held onto this lead and clenched the bronze. Well, it's hard to
top what the Athens eight did four years ago, but a bronze Olympic medal is
still certainly something to write home about. Speaking of Athens gold, I
chatted for a bit with Pete Cipollone, legendary coxswain and Olympic gold
medalist. He signed my ticket with "go for the gold". I wish...
After the men's eight medals ceremony, the athletes started posing for
pictures. We were just standing around, celebrating and waving our huge US
flag around. Guess what happened next? All of the sudden a coach-looking
guy ran over to us and asked to take our flag for the boat! They then posed
for pictures with it for about 15 minutes. So, if anybody sees any pics of
the US eight posing on the dock with a flag, that's OUR FLAG! So awesome...
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