Photo credit: World Rowing/Benedict Tufnell
Whisper is quietly but the Olympics are nearly here. Away over the channel lies the city of love, teeming with activity ahead of a summer of sport. Mere weeks after England are inevitably crowned European champions in the football, the world will descend on Paris for a month-long festival of sport where rowing will be just one of many jewels in a glistening French crown.
The World Rowing Championships in September left plenty of tales untold and numerous narratives as yet unwritten. Gold in 2023 means nothing in 2024 and fourth in 2023 can become first in 2024 in the flashiest of flashes. With so much to play for, let’s take a look at the female crews that JRN fancy to go really fast in the new year.
Sweep
With two gold medals to boot in Belgrade, the Dutch will once again take some stopping in Paris. They’re going from strength to strength despite losing influential coach Josy Verdonkschot in 2022 and are threatening to run away with things in unprecedented Olympic fashion. The eight is the only category where they have not featured prominently and it’s a boat class that is beautifully balanced between punchy crews from Romania, Canada, GB, Australia and the USA. We’ll cover Romania in more detail when I get to their extraordinary double, but their women’s squad needs little to no introduction such is the scale of their success over the past few years.
Sculling
Let’s start with the obvious one. It’s going to take something remarkable to stop Romania claiming their second successive Olympic title in this boat class. Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis are arguably World Rowing’s form crew and represent the closest imitation of a sure thing on the Olympic starting grid. The quad is a lot more interesting, with GB rising from the ranks to claim a historic gold in Belgrade ahead of a much-fancied Dutch outfit and world and Olympic champions from China. Both will come back stronger in 2024. In the single, the battle is on between the imperious Karolien Florijn of Holland and Olympic champion and veteran of the sculling scene Emma Twigg of New Zealand.
Lightweights
Look no further than Great Britain’s golden pairing of Emily Craig and Imogen Grant. After a much-maligned fourth place in Tokyo, these girls have gone unbeaten since then, taking two successive world championships and tightening their grip on what looks like a glittering gold on Parisian waters.
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