Olympic Preview Series: Million-Dollar Gift Boosts Momentum Heading Into Paris

As the U.S. Olympic rowing team settled into their final pre-Games training camp in Italy, USRowing announced a million-dollar combined gift from anonymous donors. The massive—and needed—shot of financial support added momentum to what appears to be the most cohesive and promising Olympic squad USRowing has ever sent to the Games.

“We’re making progress,” said one of the donors, who was reached while fishing in Yellowstone National Park between trips to Henley and Paris. He called the gift a “big tribute to Josy and also Amanda,” referring to USRowing Chief High Performance Officer Josy Verdonkschot and CEO Amanda Kraus.

Both Verdonkschot and Kraus, along with USRowing board chair Kirsten Feldman and USRowing Foundation chair Bill McNabb, were on hand at Olympic Media Day at the Casperson Training Center on Lake Mercer in New Jersey when the team debuted their unisuits for Paris and were available for interviews and images. The mood of the Olympic athletes and coaches was remarkable for the absence of tension, compared with similar days in the lead-up to prior Olympics.

This year’s squad has reason to be upbeat, having qualified for an incredible 12 of a possible 14 Olympic events, more than current world powers The Netherlands (10), Great Britain (10), and Italy (eight). Those three nations combined won most of the gold medals (15 of 29) at last year’s World Rowing Championships.

But the U.S. has since out-qualified each of them for the Olympic Games, thanks to historically strong performances at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualifying Regatta in May. Four U.S. boats: the men’s single, men’s double, men’s eight, and women’s quad earned spots in the limited-field Olympic regatta after the U.S. failed to finish high enough at last year’s Worlds to qualify that way.

Hopes and expectations are high for the U.S. squad at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics to break a five-year winless streak. USRowing has not won a single World Rowing Championship event since 2019 and didn’t win a single medal of any color at the last Olympics.

Board chair Feldman confirmed at Olympic Media Day that one medal of any color would be considered a success for USRowing, but expectations are much higher. Verdonkschot told Rowing News that he would be satisfied with four medals— with “at least one of them shiny [gold].”

Nine or even more is possible, though optimistic. Results from World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne created excitement as U.S. Olympic-event crews won six medals, led by gold-medal performances in the women’s double of Kristi Wagner and Sophia Vitas and the men’s four of Liam Coffigan, Michael Grady, Justin Best, and Nick Mead.

The men’s eight won silver, just two-tenths of a second behind current world champion Great Britain, and the women’s four, eight, and lightweight double all won bronzes despite sub-optimal races.

Those six crews, along with the men’s double, the women’s quad, and both pairs, have the potential to advance to the Olympic grand finals, where medals are won and anything can happen.

Add to those 10 Olympic crews the single sculls, in which the U.S. has two solid athletes, and the two U.S. Paralympic crews—the PR3 mixed four and PR3 mixed double, both silver medal winners at last year’s Worlds—and the potential for the best U.S. medal haul since the partially boycotted LA84 Games is real.

The massive gift of a million dollars was dedicated specifically to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic teams, USRowing stated. Combined with $780,000 from the National Rowing Foundation, USRowing is more than halfway toward its $3.2-million goal for the Paris 2024 fund.

Reaching the real goal of winning medals is even closer.

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