Ireland (Bronze)
This duo were the stern pair of the coxless four that won an historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Ireland’s first ever women’s Olympic rowing medal. Keogh made her debut on the senior Irish team back in 2014 and raced in the four that year and the season after. She took a break from international racing after that, returning in 2017 when rowing the pair with Aileen Crowley and then Emily Hegarty in 2018. Murtagh made her international debut at the 2020 Europeans, racing in the coxless four with Keogh, winning a bronze medal which they upgraded to silver in 2021. Post Tokyo, the W4- didn’t quite deliver the medal results expected and in 2023 Keogh and Murtagh moved into the pair, just missing out on a podium place in 2023. This season they have been amongst the most consistent performers, taking medals at all three 2024 World Rowing Cups.
Australia (Silver)
Australia’s crew is Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre. They were the stern pair of the gold medal women’s coxless four from the Tokyo Olympics and doubled-up to take seventh in the pair. They also have world championship silver from 2019 and again in 2023. This season, they opened their campaign in Lucerne, securing another silver medal behind the Dutch. At the final 2024 World Rowing Cup, they took the gold in the absence of the Dutch. Paris will be Morrison’s third Olympics; she was a member of the eight that finished seventh out of seven in Rio. She and McIntyre raced in the bronze medal-winning eight in 2018 and then switched to the pair (as well as doubling-up in the eight) in 2019, winning silver in both boat classes at the world championships.
Netherlands (Gold)
Clevering and Meester have been racing together since their U23 days in 2016, when they won bronze in the BW4- at the world championships, and they’ve been crewmates ever since. In 2019 they were in the four that won silver at the world championships and won the European title in three consecutive years from 2019-2021. They continued in the four at the Tokyo Olympics, winning silver behind Australia. After Tokyo, they moved into the pair and doubled-up in the eight, winning European bronze in both boat classes and then going one better each time at the worlds. In 2023, they focused solely on the smaller boat, taking another European silver before winning their first world championship gold as a pairing. This season, they’ve raced at two of the three 2024 World Rowing Cups and are, so far, unbeaten. A win in Paris would be the Netherlands first women’s pair Olympic medal and eclipse their previous best result of tenth back in Sydney 2000.
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