How does four go into eight? That was the elementary mathematical problem facing Australian rowing after the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Australia has never won an Olympic gold medal in the men’s or women’s eight. It is a conspicuous omission. The eight is considered to be rowing’s blue riband event, but for Australia – one of the most successful rowing nations in the world – Games glory has proven strangely elusive.
Australian men have twice claimed silver, most recently at the home Olympics in 2000, while the women have never won a medal, since the more recent introduction of the women’s race in 1976. But in Paris in two months’ time, both boats will be eyeing a place on the podium – and a historic end to the drought that began when an Australian crew first contested the eight in 1912.
“Australia has never won an Olympic gold medal in the eight – and that’s what we need to do in Paris,” says Paul Thompson, Rowing Australia’s performance director. “Both those eights have won World Cups, so we’re really optimistic about being able to press on. It has the weight of history coming into it, but last year the men beat the British world champions, so we know if we get it right, we have a very good chance.”
For Thompson, the selection of medal-contending men’s and women’s eights is the result of deep planning and a strategic gamble. The Australian women finished third at last year’s world championships, as did the men. Conversely, Australia’s coxless four crews – both of which had won gold at the Tokyo Olympics – were off the pace. This led to some considered reshuffling – turning four into eight to give the boats the best prospects of medal glory in Paris.
“When you’re coming into the Olympics, with 14 events, you have to consider where your strengths are,” says Thompson. Three members of the successful men’s four from Tokyo have been redeployed to the eight, while two of the women’s four have been converted to a pair, and another into the eight. “So out of six Olympic gold medallists, none of them are in the four this time around.”
Both crews will get a hit out this weekend, in the latest leg of the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland. One of the Tokyo champions now redeployed in a larger boat is Spencer Turrin, a veteran of Australian rowing heading to his third Olympics. “I’m loving it,” the 32-year-old tells Guardian Australia. “I had been in the four for quite a few years, but it go to the point where it seemed very exciting to do something different, try something that Australia has never been able to do.”
Turrin reflects on the irony of Australia’s absence from the Olympic winners list (the men have once won the world title, in 1986), suggesting the nation’s history in other events – including the “Oarsome Foursome” – had seen the event neglected.
“We’ve had some good eights, we’ve had crews come close,” he says. “But perhaps in the past we haven’t prioritised the eight. We have a history in the four, in the pair, so we’ve tended to focus on that event. But this time we’ve said – ‘let’s go for it.’”
Turrin and Thompson both brush off the suggestion that reallocating successful boats is a gamble. “It’s all a risk – just because you won a regatta four years ago doesn’t mean you are going to win it again,” says Turrin. “There are no guarantees in any race – but this change is the stimulus we needed.”
Thompson adds: “It is more an informed decision than a gamble. It’s where you spread your talent. You could have three boats for one eight – you could have a double, a pair and a four – you could have them all go out for medals, or you put all those rowers into the eight. We’ve worked through the athletes we’ve got and we think the eight is our best chance.”
In two months’ time, at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, Australian rowing will find out if the informed gamble has paid off. Thompson, himself a former elite rower, is quietly optimistic. “The Australian men’s eight over the past two years has beaten every nation racing in the eights,” he says. “So we’re confident we have the people to do it, the expertise to do it. If we get it right, then why not?”
It would be a landmark victory – correcting a curious quirk of history, that a nation known for its rowing, including in the marquee discipline, has never stood atop the Olympic dais for the eight. “This is the irony – we have a really proud tradition in the eights domestically, including the King’s Cup [at the national championships], it’s the blue riband event,” says Thompson. “This is the nation’s boat. If we can get it across the line, it would be a coming of age for Australian rowing.”
