It was a finish that was equal parts incredible and heartbreaking. In the men's pair at this summer's Paris Olympics, Martin and Valent Sinkovic of Croatia managed to overtake Great Britain's Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith by less than one-half of a second in the race's final meters to take home their third Olympic gold medal.
This time George and Wynne-Griffith, who were in first place for all but the last few strokes of the race in Paris, will be in the same boat as the Sinkovic brothers, and the silver-medal Brits could not be more excited to race alongside the Croatians who broke their hearts.
George, without hesitation, calls the Sinkovics "the best rowers ever."
"We have so much respect for those guys, and we're really excited to get to row with them and be equals with them and be able to share this experience," George said.
On Sunday, the Sinkovics, George, and Wynne-Griffith will make up one-half of an eight rounded out by past Olympians Jamie Koven, Ante Kušurin, Michael DiSanto, and Jack Lopas. The boat will be coxed by Jimmy Catalano, a former member of the US National Team who is currently a coach on the Northeastern men's rowing team.
"All eight of the rowers are Olympians, but we're obviously very different ages. I'm by far the oldest," Koven said. "I think it's a really good mix of Olympians from all different Olympics, all different generations."
The group ranges in age from 25 (Catalano) to 51 years old (Koven). Lopas is 26 years old, George and Wynne-Griffith are 30, DiSanto and Martin Sinkovic are both 34, Valent Sinkovic is 36, and Kušurin is 41.
"There's a very good pedigree in the boat and I think it's quite cool how we're going to cross generations," George said.
Referred to by Wynne-Griffith as "a crew through the ages," at least one member of the boat has rowed in seven of the last eight Summer Olympics.
Koven represented Team USA in in Atlanta and Sydney. Kušurin rowed for Croatia in Beijing; DiSanto for Team USA in Rio; Lopes for New Zealand in Toyko. Before their silver in the pair in Paris, George and Wynne-Griffith won bronze as part of Great Britain's eight in Tokyo; and the Sinkovics are Croatia's most decorated summer Olympians ever, winning silver in the quad in London before beginning their run of three consecutive golds--in the double in Rio and the pair in Tokyo and Paris.
It was Kušurin's idea to put an eight boat together for this year's regatta, Koven explained. Koven, Kušurin, DiSanto, and Lopas work together at the same investment firm and rowed together as a quad at last year's Head of the Charles.
"Ante's Croatian, and it was his idea to row with Valent and Martin," Koven said. "We didn't actually add Tom and Ollie until very late in the process when we'd already sort of put the boat together. I had posted part of a lineup on Regatta Central, but I didn't post the full line up."
A lot of people reached out to Koven wanting to fill the remaining two seats in the boat, including George and Wynne-Griffith.
"It wasn't initially the plan to put those two pairs together, but when they reached out, we immediately added them to the crew, because it's just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have the two pairs from the Olympics, first and second, rowing with each other after such a great race," Koven said.
"I hope we can do ourselves justice next Sunday," Wynne-Griffith said. "I'm excited to see what Jamie can put down." The group will come together to practice as a whole for the first time on Thursday.
Collectively, the group will be looking to add to the considerable Head of the Charles hardware they have won separately. Koven won the Champ Singles race in 1997 and 1998, and in 2021 won the Parent-Child Double with his daughter Lucy. Wynne-Griffith was part of Yale's winning eight in 2015. Koven, Kušurin, DiSanto, and Lopas finished third in the Director's Challenge Quad a year ago, and Catalano was the coxswain of US Rowing's first-place boat in the Champ Eight for the past two years, including the course record in 2022. The Sinkovics won Champ Doubles in 2014, where they set a course record of 15:40 that still stands a decade later. They will be again be racing the double on Saturday, but Sunday is what they are really looking forward to.
"We are most excited about the eights race. We'll do the doubles just for fun, because Saturday we don't have any other race," Martin said. "But the eight is really why we came here."
One thing is clear from each member of the boat: they're incredibly excited for Sunday's race.
"I think it will be really special for us to reconnect with them and to try to be as best as we can with such a group of such different guys, different ages, and different backgrounds, but I think we can do it," Martin Sinkovic said. "It will be fun, exciting, and a really nice race to row."
"It's really fun that we actually were able to pull this boat together,' Koven said. "We'll be out there with all these young guys. I think we're all excited to be thrown into the mix of a bunch of really competitive collegiate crews and some good clubs from overseas as well."
Wynne-Griffith is "super excited" about coming back to the Charles River this weekend after last competing in the Head of the Charles with Yale in 2018. "It's one of those races where you do it because you enjoy the sport and it kind of reminds you why you enjoy the sport," Wynne-Griffith said of the Head of the Charles. "I just think it's a great way to celebrate our enjoyment of rowing.
"The winning's great, the competing's great, the racing is great," he said, "but if you don't come away with any meaningful relationships with people that you've either trained with or raced against or raced with, I think you're missing the point of why we get into sport in the first place. For me, with the whole weekend, I'm just really excited to have that celebration.
"I'm just very much going to enjoy the sport for the reasons that I fell in love with it in the first place, rather than having to worry about selection or training," he continued. "There's not any more perfect event to showcase the positive qualities and the reason that people fall in love with the sport than the Head of the Charles."
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