How do you define greatness? A mind-bending feat that surpasses expectation and rationality? A moment of authentic surprise that inverts the weight of pressing odds? Or perhaps an incision in the linear unfurling of your heart?
In sport, we are quick to anoint greatness upon each other. A performance that impresses us is often bestowed the virtue of greatness before it can even truly be understood. It is easy to attach brilliance onto bravery and boldness but sometimes the two should not be conflated. True greatness should combine mastery, magnanimity and more than a hint of magic.
The Olympic Games is our ultimate magic show. A procession of truly elite talent, operating at the pinnacle of their sport and thrust forward into a limelight fostered by four years of relative translucency. These two weeks are stitched into the very fabric of competition, dating back to the lore of Ancient Greece, and have transcended the politics of modern society to become the ultimate marker in sporting excellence. To win Olympic Gold gives you immortality of a rare and timeless specification – your story will be perpetuated forevermore, carried forward by the whispers of generations to come, who too aim to climb those sacred steps and join this club of champions. Emerging over the horizon, this time in the blue and red hue of palatial Paris, we are ready for the very fastest in rowing to be crowned.
Step forward, my friends – The Olympic Games have come.
The Stats
Country
Great Britain
Crew Names
Oliver Wynne-Griffith (B)
Tom George (S)
Average Age
30 years
Olympic Record
Third in the M8+ at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (George and Wynne-Griffith)
2024 Competitive Record
World Rowing Cup 1: 1st (M2-)
World Rowing Cup 2: 1st (M2-)
World Rowing Cup 3: N/A
European Championships: 1st (M2-)
The Profile
Wynne-Griffith and George have been rowing together since their school days at Radley College and raced together in the GBR eight that won bronze at the 2012 junior worlds. They went their separate ways for their undergraduate studies in the USA (George to Princeton and Wynne-Griffith to Yale) but returned as post-grads to race for Cambridge in The Boat Race. They were also both members of the British eight from 2018, winning bronze at the world championships that year and again in 2019. They rounded off their time in the eight with Olympic bronze in Tokyo. Post Olympics, they became the GB men’s pair, winning two 2022 World Rowing Cups and then silver at the Europeans and bronze at the World Championships. They repeated that feat in 2023, upgrading their world championship bronze to a silver. However, it’s in 2024 that they’ve really stepped on and have dominated the field, winning at the first and second 2024 World Rowing Cups, and taking their first championship title winning the Europeans. They will head into Paris as favourites to win GB’s first men’s pair Olympic title since the legendary Redgrave and Pinsent combo in Atlanta 1996.
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