Canadian women's 8 rowing team holds off Great Britain to capture Olympic silver
Finishes 4.45 seconds behind Romania in France, Brits earn bronze
Avalon Wasteneys said one of the calls the Canadian women's eight rowing team had while training for the Paris Games was, "with each other, for each other."
It's a good mantra for a sport that requires eight women to pull in perfect unison, where rowing a split second faster or slower than one's teammates can throw off the effort.
On Saturday, Canada's defending-champion women's eight rowing team pulled their way together for a second straight Olympic medal, holding off Great Britain to capture silver at the Paris Olympics.
Led by coxswain Kristen Kit and three other returnees from the Tokyo 2021 championship crew, the Canadians covered 2,000 metres in five minutes 58.84 seconds for a silver medal at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in France.
"So much gratitude for these women. They [answered] every single call I asked them to do," Kit told CBC Sports. "They dug way deeper than I've ever seen anyone dig. You can't count out [Canadian women] until [the race] is done."
WATCH l Team kept their 'heads in the boat" while rowing to silver:
Added Avalon Wasteneys, a member of the 2021 Olympic squad: "Right from the beginning, I think we all trusted each other, we believed in each other and we knew it was going to be a great, tough race.
"Off the start we went as hard as we could. We added some extra pushes. There were [times] when I had doubt but I just kept backing myself by believing in the girls around me because I knew we had such a strong crew. Kit was pushing us, pushing us, pushing us and we hung on and gave our best effort."
WATCH l Canadian women's 8 team races to silver at Paris 2024:
Romania won gold in 5:54.39, with Great Britain (5:59..51) taking bronze.
4 returnees from '21 championship team
"Our [coxswain] Victoria Stefania Petreanu told us in the last 500 metres the gold was ours, but I didn't believe it," said Romanian rower Maria Lehaci. "I knew that we had to go for the finish line and here we are. We are Olympic champions."
WATCH l Canadian women's 8 team receives silver medals:
The team returned four members from the Tokyo Games: Calgary's Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto's Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C., along with Kit of St. Catharines, Ont.
Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont., Victoria's Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont. are the other team members.
The team finished third in Monday's qualifier, forcing them to go through a repechage on Thursday to qualify for the final, just as they did in Tokyo.
Canada's victory in 2021 ended a medal drought in the event dating to the London Games in 2012, and it's the ninth straight Olympics Canada has won a medal in rowing dating back to 1992.
However, it had fewer chances in Paris after qualifying only two boats compared to 10 in Tokyo. The second boat, with Jenny Casson of Kingston, Ont., and Jill Moffatt of Bethany, Ont., finished second in the B final of the lightweight women's double sculls.
Kit said the team slid down the standings after Tokyo and "really struggled" to regain form.
"To pull it together in nine months, this is a dream come true," said Kit, who said she will retire after Paris.
Close battle late in final
The Canadian women's 8 crew clinched a berth for Paris last September with a fifth-place result (6:07.15) at the world championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Canada found itself in a tight battle with Great Britain for second with 500 metres to go, but were able to hold off their rivals to claim silver.
The Romanian team put on a dominant performance, leading for three-quarters of the race and finishing four seconds in front.
Wasteneys said she knew the team from Britain was close behind and the team would have to push hard all the way to the line.
"I was just digging as deep as I could, trying to find every ounce of energy and ultimately trying to leave the race course with zero regrets," she said.
Kit pointed out the Canadians didn't have the greatest start, and had to adjust the plan.
"I kind of made an executive decision to keep us high, and get us in the race, and we were in the race," she said. "Honestly I was just really grateful the women trusted me to change the race tactics on the fly."
WATCH l How does rowing work at the Olympics?:
With files from Doug Harrison, CBC Sports
