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Drew Ginn writing on his blog has some good interviews from Australian media and a quick wrap-up post on the final race.

Very Happy Boys

Well it's 48 hours later and we have been enjoying the moment. Duncan and I in a cab going back to the village. Have to say it was tough but as they say anything worth doing is not easy. Who ever they are again they are truly wise. In next few days I will share many of the emotions we have been through, but for now we are two very happy men.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful support and encourgement. It has meant a great deal to me.

Drew also wrote another post reflecting deeply on the people who surround him and his emotional connections with them both positive and negative.

It's a long one and you can read it Connection: Finding, Testing and Realising together.

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Tom won his first Olympic medal in the GB 4-.  He writes his own blog, Tom James.  He remembers his nerves about the final and writes about the race plan.

Gold… just

It's been a while since I've left a post on my blog. I found trying to write during the week leading up to our final quite hard and didn't particularly want to give too much away either. After our semi on the Wednesday we found ourselves in a very good position to feel that we could win and since that day I had been feeling pretty emotional and nervous about the final. It's a very daunting and horrible time before an Olympic final, it doesn't make me want to do it again.

…anyway, come the final last Saturday, somehow, god only knows how, we actually won and in a way which I still can't believe. It's not even close to being a reality. I just see a nicely coloured piece of metal, with a red silk ribbon, lying on the desk by my bed which says Olympic Champion and for some reason I still can't make the connection that it's referring to me.

The Race: (more…)

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Rowperfect UK is supporting the World Firefighter Games and Mersey Rowing Club with Dreher sculls which will be brand new for the Games.

They run in Liverpool from 24 August until 2 September.  After the games, they will pass to Mersey RC who will be using them for their club sculling programme.  They have chosen Apex Sculls, 288 cm midpoint (+/- 5 cm adjustment), 88 cm inboard, medium stiffness, medium handle.Many thanks to Andy Coyne of Mersey RC for setting up the association.

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Geroid quietly finishes his Olympic Regatta and leaves the world stage

Time to exit stage left

At dawn on Wednesday, I quietly exited the Olympic Village, bound for life on “the other side”. I felt like a Big Brother contestant leaving the house, except Davina McCall and the cheering fans were not there. On the upside, at least I was not being booed!!

The ‘Olympic Machine’ was still working away flawlessly, but it’s components are being whittled away day-by-day as more and more athletes finish their competitions.
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Jesus College Boat Club, Cambridge are looking for 10 cleavers (5 bowside, 5 strokeside) and 5 traditional wooden macons (3 bowside, 2 strokeside) to be painted up and made into presentation oars. Second hand blades, or blades that are no longer rowable but still look the part would both be suitable.

If you think you can help, even if you only have one or two oars that you'd like to sell, please contact Andy at:

Email:  jcbc-admin[at]jesus.cam.ac.uk

Mobile: 07812 476 506

Thanks, have a good summer on the water.

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Duncan Free writes his blog about the post-race celebrations.

Celebration

What a week. Its been such a great time here….obviously. Winning that race was such a relief and what seemed to be a great weight off the shoulders, particularly with the preparation we had with Drew's back. In the 8 days of the regatta, apart from the heat, semi and final…we got to have one row of 4km. As I stated in my last post, a little unorthodox but who says you have to be in the boat everyday??

We knew Canada were going to go out quick and we knew if we were with them at the 1000m mark, we'd go well. For those that didn't see the race, that's exactly what happened.

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Fran is writing on the BBC Blogs page and summarises how she feels as time passes about the Silver Medal she won with the W4x. 

^{Gradually putting silver in perspective}

^{The dust has been settling over the past few days and although I don't think our disappointment at not winning the gold will ever go away, I am beginning to put things into more perspective day by day.}

^{We actually had a great race and I honestly don't know what we could have done to go faster.}

^{If I had my day again I wouldn't change what we did; physically and tactically we put together the best race we ever have; we went as fast as we possibly could on the day. And as an athlete this is the most I have ever asked of myself.}
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Geroid Towey writes about disappointment in the Olympic Regatta

Final proves a bridge too far

After our repechage, we were upbeat and felt like we were on the cusp of making the semi-final one of our best races at the Games. We needed to, because the group draw pitted us against the top teams in the world with only three teams to emerge from the battle as finalists.

We drew current world champions (Great Britain), current Olympic champions (Denmark), current world silver medalists (France) and current world bronze medalists (Italy) along with the United States.

We were by no means fazed by the task in hand and quite often during the year had found ourselves in the mix with these crews at various World Cup regattas. And here at the Games all teams posted similar times in the heats.
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Writing on the Row2k website, Heather talks about the wind-down after the party

Life of an Olympian after competition

Phew, so I know I had a blog entry a few days back that talked about how "boring" life of a competing Olympian could be…. well I take that back. What I would do for ten minutes of down time! Life here, once you are finished competition, is absolutely exhausting but incredibly fun!

I think I have slept a total of about eight hours since our race on Sunday. As someone who has rarely had much of a social life after about 10pm for the past four years, 3am nights is not characteristic of me at all! (I am known to my teammates as "MOMdoli" due to my often motherly behaviour.)

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Jason is writing on the WSJ China Blog

Saturday was a big day at the Olympics.

The weather was gorgeous. The pollution meter was almost in the single digits! Blue skies all around. We watched Michael Phelps’ unbelievable butterfly gold medal. This wasn’t the only razor-thin victory on the ninth day of the Games. The women’s double scull from New Zealand, comprised of the lovely Evers-Swindell twin sisters, shared the same margin of victory as Phelps’ win: .01. There are very few sports that dabble in the microscopic domain of thousandths of seconds. Some winter Olympic sports do.

Following a great practice in the pair this morning, I spent the better part of the day cheering and pedaling my fanny off while following the races down. Some races weren’t quite as tight as the women’s double, but all were exciting to watch as the world’s best rowers chased the dream of winning a medal. U.S. single sculler Michelle Guerrette won silver today in one of the most exciting rowing races I’ve ever witnessed. This is the first medal for the rowing team this year. My voice is still hoarse from yelling.
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