Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors rowed a superbly timed race to win the women’s double sculls gold medal, New Zealand’s second gold medal of the Games.
The New Zealanders were in fourth place in the early going but gradually moved through the field, hitting the lead with 550 metres remaining.
They then put in what looked to be a race-winning burst, but over the closing stages found themselves being hauled in by the strong Romanian pair, Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis.
The New Zealanders were running on fumes over the last few strokes, but had enough left to reach the line first. They were timed at 6min 50.45s, with the Romanians second in 6min 50.69s. Great Britain were third, 2½ seconds further back.
The New Zealanders’ hard-earned victory was notable for several reasons.
Both women had babies in 2022 and it was said they are the first crew of mothers to win an Olympic rowing medal.
Francis and Spoors have both won Olympic medals previously. Francis (when she was Brooke Donoghue), took silver in the double sculls in Tokyo, and Spoors was also a silver medallist in Tokyo, in the women’s eight.
It was an even more significant day for Spoors, who was able to watcher sister, Phoebe, win a bronze medal in the women’s four shortly after her own race.
The gold medallists spoke with feeling about being mothers and winning gold.
“Being a mother isn’t easy,” said Francis. “It takes a village to raise a child and we’ve had the whole village behind us. It’s great to have our families here today.”
The New Zealanders said they’d received messages of encouragement from not just the New Zealand rowing community but from the Australians and others, praising them for taking on motherhood and still competing at the top level in rowing.
They said when they decided to return to rowing after having their babies, they set a big goal of success at the Olympics.
“This was the dream,” Spoors said. “Rowing is so hard, and the training is so hard, that you have to have a big dream. Brooke and I were going through the same thing and had underlying belief in each other.”
They said the end of their race was so tight there was no time to think about where they were placed.
“It was stroke by stroke,” Spoors said. “Our coach told us to go out there and be brave and we were brave throughout the race.”
Francis said the last 500 metres was such a battle “we just had to put our heads down and go”.
The aftermath of the race was a buzz of frenetic activity for the pair, as they sought out their families, gave their children a cuddle and shouted at the top of their lungs while they watched the New Zealand four crews battle to win medals.
There wasn’t such good news for Robbie Manson and Jordan Parry in the men’s double sculls final.
The New Zealand men, who’d done well to earn a place in the final, found the pace too hot and finished sixth in 6min 21.44s. The race was won by Romania in 6min 12.58s from the Netherlands and Ireland.