By Kris Shannon in Paris
There is a simple explanation for the psychological boost that one Kiwi crew receives after watching another race to the dais at an Olympic Games.
A vocal New Zealand cheering section was treated to a now-familiar sight at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium: Three rowing medals won in an hour, as success seemed to beget success.
And when a day like that arrives, a day like so many in a black singlet have enjoyed before, there’s a reason why one boat appears buoyed by the next.
It’s not a nebulous concept like pride in teammates’ achievements. That’s forgotten once crews like the men’s four are pushing past their limits while making a late charge at the leaders.
As Matt Macdonald outlined after he and his teammates fell just short in that push, adding silver to the team’s gold and bronze collected minutes earlier, the mental lift is much more concrete.
“The Kiwi team gets some momentum after a day like this and I guarantee all the guys with finals still to come are pretty excited,” said Macdonald, who teamed with Tom Murray, Logan Ullrich and Ollie Maclean.
“It’s really cool to inspire the others and give them that confidence, because we’ve all been doing the same work – the same training programme.
“So you see another boat do well, you know you’re going to be peaking at the right time as well. It’s massive.”
For all the team’s triumphant tradition, these Olympics were a rare occasion this particular boat did well.
New Zealand have only twice before earned a medal in the men’s four, and not for 40 years, giving Macdonald and Murray a second breakthrough achievement in as many Games.
The duo was part of the victorious eight in Tokyo and Murray contextualised this new feat shortly after crossing 0.85 seconds behind a dominant American crew.
“Any chance we get to get out there in the four, it’s very special,” Murray said.
“The fact that we can add a little bit more legacy to an already proud country, it’s really hard to put it into words. The camaraderie between us these last 18 months is just so special.”
Maclean, meanwhile, labelled the three medals as merely an “encouraging start” given the country’s rich history in the sport – and the Tokyo reserve might well be right.
The final day of competition on Saturday night (NZT) sees the culmination of Emma Twigg’s quest for consecutive golds in the single sculls, before Tom Mackintosh contests the men’s final after qualifying fifth-fastest from the semifinals.
Rowing was already New Zealand’s most successful Olympic sport and, 20km east of Paris, its tally increased to 15 gold and 32 total medals.
The men’s four, who made it six silvers, were warming up when Lucy Spoors and Brook Francis began the morning with gold in the double sculls. Spoors, who also watched sister Phoebe earn bronze in the women’s four, summed up the squad’s mood.
“I have so much confidence in the New Zealand team,” she said. “We’re a family, and when one of us is going good, it means the rest of us are going good. We’ve just seen the men’s four and it’s not over yet.
“Go the New Zealand rowing team – I can’t wait to watch some more.”
Tom Murray, part of the silver medal-winning men’s four, was asked about his emotions after crossing the line 0.85s off gold. There were no initial celebrations – quite the opposite – and Murray provided a keen insight into why.
When you’re in the Olympic final, anybody in the race can win it. Everybody wants to win it. Everybody has that self-belief to win it, and you don’t make it to this point without that self-belief. So all you want to do is have your best race.
I think the disappointment comes when you go out there and you don’t perform to your best. That’s where the real disappointment is. So, for us, even though it wasn’t the gold, I think we did our best. On the day, it wasn’t quite enough to get over America, but they are a top crew. We were able to hold off some other really talented crews out there, some really strong crews. So there’s no disappointment.
When you say there’s visible jubilation from some and visible disappointment from others, there’s so many emotions rolling through at that time. There’s a lot of relief that you’re across the line – it’s strange there’s relief that it’s done. You’ve been building up for years at this point, and in the last week you’ve been really just honing in on it. So there’s some relief that you’ve crossed the line, it’s done now.
Those emotions roll in for weeks and there will be jubilation – and there is jubilation rolling through. It’s an Olympic medal; there’s so many that don’t quite make it to an Olympic medal. There’s plenty of crews capable of winning that Olympic medal, but don’t quite get it on the day.
The amount of work that goes in behind the scenes through our massive support network to get us across, there is jubilation, there is pride in this crew, pride in our coaches, pride in our team, pride in our wider New Zealand team. And then there’s so many more that roll through.
So it may not look like it when you’re out there and it feels like it’s 100 degrees and you’re struggling to breathe and you can’t see, but as they’re rolling in you just have to take them one at a time.