Olympics: The Eights Are Back, as U.S. Crews ‘Fully Prepare for Paris’

U.S. Olympic eights are back, and not just in the Games (for which the U.S. men had to go through the last-chance Final Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta) and are in contention for medals, including gold.

And for a change, a very deliberate one achieved by the athletes, coaches, and clubs that have bought into the plans and direction of USRowing’s chief performance officer Josy Verdonkschot, U.S. crews are favored to medal in sculling, small boat, and lightweight events—as well as in the almighty eights.

“We did a pretty good job as a team,” said Verdonkschot after the U.S. qualified four more crews for the Olympics at the FOPQR—bringing the U.S. total to 12 of 14 Olympic events. “We are in a good spot right now.

“You have to understand that if you can win the qualifiers, you can race for medals. So I would be lying if I said I would be satisfied with just six A finals.”

A more likely and satisfying outcome in Paris will be four medals.

“At least one of them shiny [meaning gold],” said Verdonkschot.

With the demonstrated speed of the fours, the women’s doubles—both lightweight and open boats earned medals at last year’s Worlds—and the potential of the men’s double and women’s quad, the return of U.S. eights could mean more than four medals for the U.S. at the Olympic regatta (July 27 to Aug. 4).

Asked if he was proud of the women in the U.S. quad after they qualified for Paris at May’s FOPQR, Verdonkschot didn’t hesitate.

“Yeah, I’m really proud. They really executed. It was perfectly done. And I think I’m particularly proud because in the end we qualified 12 boats.

“Quantity is good. But that doesn’t really satisfy me. Quality is what counts in Paris.”

While the boats that needed to qualify raced in Lucerne, the already qualified crews trained on Italy’s Lago di Pusiano.

“They had a good camp in Italy,” said Verdonkschot, reached by phone before he drove into the Gotthard Tunnel on his way to Pusiano from the FOPQR in Lucerne to join the crews headed to World Rowing Cup II, also held in Lucerne. “Those athletes who are right now in Pusiano, they will feel the vibes of this team. And they consider that a good indication of where they should stand.”

At the Lucerne World Rowing Cup II, the last international regatta to which countries bring their Olympic crews before the Games (Rowing World Cup III attracted mostly U23 and non-Olympic Worlds crews), the U.S. men’s eight won the meaningless “race for lanes” in lieu of heats, due to only six entries, before finishing second to defending world champion Great Britain by only two tenths of a second in the final. The Netherlands finished two seconds back in third, with both Australia and Germany seven seconds back in fourth and fifth.

The result represents a major step up from last year’s result at the world championships, when the fifth-place U.S. eight failed to qualify and was never in the mix. This year’s eight features a new line-up, completely reselected for the Olympic campaign.

“It’s been a very big team collaborative effort from Josy to Casey Galvanek, who’s the head and sweep coach and coaching the four. He did an outstanding job selecting this crew,” said University of Washington head coach Michael Callahan, who has coached this year’s boys in the boat since their March selection.

“These guys are really hard-working, very dedicated, very focused on the Olympics and performing well there. It’s really a crew, which is important. It’s not just a collection of eight talents and a cox. They are a crew and they’re working together very, very hard. It’s been fun to work with them in Seattle before the qualifier, and I’m looking forward to the next four weeks here in Princeton before we go back to Europe.”

Because the women’s eight event was likely to be a straight final with fewer than seven entries, the request was made to World Rowing to allow three U.S. straight fours to race to give the athletes in the eight the opportunity to race in more than a final-only event.

The request was denied, continuing the disadvantage North American elite rowers suffer vis-a-vis their European rivals, who get the extra elite-level racing experience of the World Rowing-administered European Championships in April as well as the three Europe-based World Rowing Cups—all without crossing an ocean and changing time zones—in the lead-up to the Olympics.

The Jesse Foglia-coached women’s eight and four gained some international racing experience, if not victories, at Lucerne. Both crews raced to third-place finishes in the finals, the four in a field of seven, the eight against only three other crews. Canada was the surprise winner in the eight. Although Canada is the defending Olympic champion, this year’s crew is a mostly new line-up, with only three returning Olympic champions. Great Britain won the four and finished second in the eight. Notably absent was Romania, the clear favorites after winning last year’s world championship and this spring’s European championships with the same crew, save one athlete.

Both U.S. eights are potential Olympic medalists, even champions. The margins are typically tight in the big boats—both U.S. eights missed the medals by less than one percent in Tokyo—and Romania’s five-medal (two gold) mastery of women’s events at last year’s Worlds depended on their top athletes’ racing multiple events, something they are less likely to do in Paris. The U.S. eights have both the top-end talent and depth to end USRowing’s drought of no senior National Team wins since 2019.

While the women’s quad celebrated its Olympic qualification, the men’s quad raced incredibly, and painfully, close to doing the same, finishing short to Estonia by 13 one-hundredths of a second. If the event allowed 13 quads, as it did until recently, the U.S. would have snared a spot in the Games already. But with the reduction of the Olympic field to nine countries, the U.S. crew of Dominique Williams, Will Legenzowski, Liam Galloway, and Kevin Cardno—arguably America’s best men’s quad since the U.S. won silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games—miss out.

When USRowing named the Olympic rowing squad in June, Princeton head coach Lori Douphiny, Dartmouth head coach Wyatt Allen, and Cal associate head coach Adrienne Martelli were all included. The addition of top collegiate coaches fits well with the makeup of the squad: Every single one of the men rowed in college at a varsity IRA program, and all of the women rowed in college at a Division I NCAA program, except for four-time Olympian Megan Musnicki, who rowed at one of the top Division III schools, Ithaca College.

Dauphiny will coach the women’s pair of 2023 Stanford NCAA champion Azja Czajkowski and 2017 Washington NCAA champion Jess Thoennes. Martelli also will assist head women’s sweep coach Jesse Foglia, concentrating on the four. Czajkowski and Thoennes finished second in their heat, third in their semi, and sixth in the grand final at Lucerne.

The men’s pair of Billy Bender and Oliver Bubb missed the grand final by a quarter of a second and then finished a disappointing fourth in the B final at Lucerne.

“They showed that they have the speed to be in the mix. Racing three days over a long weekend probably caught up to them and showed their youth a little bit,” said Allen, who coached both as undergraduates at Dartmouth and is their coach again this summer. “I think they’re gonna be right in it, come Paris.”

Besides Musnicki in the women’s Olympic eight for the fourth time and three-time Olympian Kara Kohler, who will be the U.S. single sculler, most of the squad—25 of 42—will be racing in their first Olympic Games. But they are far from inexperienced. All but four have previous senior National Team experience.

Single sculler Jacob Plihal earned his spot on the U.S. National Team and qualified for a place in the Olympic Games for the first time with a second-place (by less than two tenths of a second) finish at the FOPQR. Combined with the win by the men’s double of Sorin Koszyk and Ben Davison at the FOPQR and the already qualified and favored-to-medal women’s double of Sophia Vitas and Kristi Wagner, this year’s squad is the first in the qualification era to have earned entries in all four events: men’s and women’s singles and doubles.

Combined with the resurgent eights and the rest of the 12 qualified boats, U.S. Olympic rowing could have its best Games since LA84, and certainly better than the zero medals from the Covid-disrupted Tokyo Games in 2021.

Verdonkschot knows that speed in the spring is nice, but Olympic medals are won in the summer. USRowing qualified nine crews for Tokyo and won no medals. Qualifying three more for Paris doesn’t guarantee medals.

“Nine times zero is zero. Twelve times zero is also zero. So now we have to get back to work and make sure that we are fully prepared for Paris.” 

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