Three years on from Tokyo, Paris 2024 was a proper Olympics with hugs, kisses, and tears; not swabs, masks, and isolation. Despite a washout first day at the Olympic Regatta, the Stade Nautique soon glistened in the sun and the grandstands were packed with cheering spectators watching the fight for Olympic medals.
Cambridge’s Imogen Grant, along with her teammate Emily Craig, secured gold in the lightweight women’s double. The British duo have rampaged unbeaten since missing a medal in Tokyo by just 0.01 seconds. “That was part of our story and this Olympics was the grand finale. Not every Olympian gets it right on the first try,” said Grant, who studied Medicine at Cambridge and started work as doctor a few days after the Olympic Closing Ceremony. Grant has the remarkable record of having raced two Boat Races in the same year, having competed in the 2016 Lightweight Boat Race in Henley, and a week later for Blondie on the Tideway. In addition, she has three Boat Race Blues for 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Former Boat Race athletes also featured on all three of the men’s sweep podiums. The men’s pairs final proved to be one of the highlights of the regatta: It was won by Croatia’s legendary Sinkovic brothers, Marten and Valent, but only just. Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith rowed together in the Cambridge Blue Boat in 2022, and came agonisingly close to realising their Olympic dreams having led until the final few strokes of the medal race. On the podium alongside them stood one of their Oxford opponents in that 2022 race, Switzerland’s Roman Röösli who won bronze.
Yet more alumni of that 2022 Boat Race appeared in the final of the men’s four. From the Dark Blues, Liam Corrigan won gold for the USA, David Ambler won bronze for Great Britain, and Jack Robertson finished sixth for Australia. Alongside Ambler was Light Blue three-time Boat Race veteran Freddie Davidson (2017, 2018, 2019 and selected for 2020).
Charlie Elwes won the 2022 Boat Race for Oxford after taking bronze in the men’s eight at the Tokyo Olympic Games; in Paris he was again in the British eight as it claimed gold.
British cox Harry Brightmore, who made his Olympic debut in Paris, promptly retired from international coxing after bagging gold and started a new role as Assistant Coach at OUBC. “I hope I will be able to offer an understanding of how my boats have felt from the cox’s seat. I’m trusting that I can do that from the coach’s launch too. It’s been really refreshing. It’s a different side to the sport.”
For the 2025 Boat Race campaign, Oxford have landed Great Britain’s women’s eight Olympic bronze medallist Heidi Long: “I’ve always wanted to be in a Blue Boat so I can’t wait to represent the Dark Blues.” Long’s Olympic eight in Paris was coxed by 2013 Cambridge Blue Henry Fieldman, who across in the American eight faced Olivia Coffey, a Cambridge Blue of 2018.
New Zealand’s Tokyo Olympic Champion in the men’s eight, Tom Mackintosh, finished fifth in the single scull in Paris. Tom will lead Oxford’s 2025 Boat Race campaign as Dark Blue President.
There were two Cambridge alumni in the single sculls including South Africa’s Paige Badenhorst, who rowed in the 2022 Boat Race, and Bermuda’s Dara Alizadeh, veteran of the 2018 and 2019 Boat Race. Alizadeh’s coach in Paris was Light Blue Chief Coach Rob Baker.
From Vaires-sur-Marnes to the Putney Hard: How will our newly-minted Paris Olympians fare on the Championship Course? We can’t wait to find out.
Images: Imogen Grant at stroke; Harry Brightmore
Article written by Tom Ransley / Row360.