Gevvie Stone and Kristi Wagner faced down stiff competition in the final of the women's double; they contended early in the race, but could not match the pace of the leaders and finished fifth. Stone and Wagner spoke to row2k shortly after the race.
Interviewer: How was that?
Gevvie Stone: You know, we raced hard. It's the Olympic final, and we worked hard in the semi to put ourselves there, and our goal was to go out and have a great race in the hopes that that would put us on the podium, and we attacked it from the first stroke. We didn't give them a head start today, and we really think we fought every stroke, and Lithuania and the Dutch kind of took off from 500 to go, and we tried to go with them.
row2k: Gevvie, take us through the journey from Rio five years ago to today.
Stone: Oh, my goodness.
row2k: In 30 words or less.
Stone: 30 words or less? Yikes!
It would be kind of the smooth thing to retire after Rio with a medal headed into residency, but I still loved training, and I was training with Emily Kallfelz in the single and was PR-ing all my workouts in the summer of 2017.
In addition to still loving the training and making time for it just by being a resident, I was getting faster, and gave a talk to some elementary schoolers, and they said, "You still love it and you're still getting faster. Why stop?" and you know, it set off that question in my head.
I was happy with residency. There wasn't a problem with that, so I was pretty sure I was going to retire, and Mary Jones told me, "No. Just tell someone you're going to go for Tokyo and see what your internal reaction is." I called up one of my best friends from college and said, "I'm going for Tokyo." I knew the moment I said that, I was doing it.
There are no guarantees in this game. You can get injured. There are up-and-comers. There is no guarantee you'll make it to this team - never mind that Olympic final. It's been a process. It hasn't all been easy. In fact, none of it is really easy, but I enjoy the process. I've been lucky to row with Kristi the last couple of months, and she's made it really fun. It's been, every day, I come to practice, excited to work hard, and we focused in on this goal, and no regrets!
row2k: Gevvie, you mentioned newcomers. There's one standing right next to you. Kristi, you've had a learning curve that's been nearly vertical. What was your experience like and how did this boat sort of grow together to get to this point here?
Kristi Wagner: I think US women's rowing is a force. And so, even if you are on the cusp, there's still an expectation that you're going to perform when you get there, and I think that helped.
But, also, before Gevvie and I even started rowing together, we had a conversation where she said, "I don't want to go to doubles' trials and just race. I want to go to doubles' trials and win and go to the Olympics and perform." And I said, "Yes, I want that too!" I think you either rise to the occasion or you don't. I knew, if I didn't rise to the occasion, she wouldn't be here with me either, you know.
row2k: What have you learned in moving from the wanting to the doing? It's one thing to want something; it's another thing to go out and do it, especially if you've never done it before.
Wagner: I think I've learned that every day matters and every stroke matters. On the days that you don't feel good, and you don't want to do it and it's windy and raining and cold in Boston, but you still show up because that's what's going to count. I mean, I already knew that, but I really learned that that's what gives you confidence going to the line. You know that you've done it before, and you can do it again.
Interviewer: What was your experience like going into the Boston training group?
Wagner: The whole Boston thing is really cool. Gevvie has created this culture. I think, with women's sculling - and I know there are other players but I think she's really the leader of the pack. Cicely [Madden, USA W4x] and Alie [Rusher, USA W4x] are here too, and Emily Kallfelz is super fast. Mary Jones is super fast. They all went there because of her. She brings people with her. She doesn't just build them up. She brings them with them.
Interviewer: Gevvie, going forward now, is Paris in your sights? Or are you going to continue working to build sculling in Boston?
Stone: Yeah, I hope. I go out to residency August - gosh - 9 is my official start date. Less than two weeks. I'm one of the masters rowers now, so now I get the advantage. I get to row with the guys in the doubles.
Wagner: She's going to make their boats really fast.
Interviewer: Gevvie, you talked about how you wanted to come back because you were enjoying your training. How do you strike that balance between "I want to go and compete, and I want a medal" and "I'm doing this because I'm still having run and I love this sport"? Simone Biles, just last night, told an interviewer, "I feel like I'm not having fun anymore." For you, as someone who's been doing this, how do you find that?
Stone: At this level, I think you have to have fun to perform your best because rowing in particular is grueling. You do the same repetitive motion 300 times in roughly seven minutes, and you put your body through a little bit of a torture chamber doing it. In addition to physical pain, it's mentally taxing.
In order to succeed, you have to love what you're doing because, if you don't, it's not going to go well for you. When I talk to middle schoolers and stuff, I say, "You look at us walking down the street, no one's like, 'Oh, that's an Olympian!'"
I'm not this superhuman or physical specimen. I think that, really, what it takes to get out there in an Olympic final is having the heart to do it. That's really the superpower of being an Olympian - that heart and that passion. I think that's what it takes. It's that drive, that heart, and loving what you do.
I hope Simone, by the way, finds that love. I think we've been paying attention, I think she's putting a lot of stress on herself, and I hope that she's able to remove that. That's what my dad said to us. He said, "This race is for you. You've made it to the Olympic final. Go out there and race for each other. Race for fun because that's why you train."
It's fun to go out there and kind of see what your body can do - like, see how fast you can go. That's why we do it, and I think it seems like a lot of athletes take the external stressors and internalize them, and I hope that they're all able to just let that go and perform for themselves and all the hours they put in and for the joy of being there and competing against the best in the world on this stage.
Interviewer: Kristi, are you going to keep going to Paris?
Stone: I'm saying yes for her!
Wagner: I'm going to keep rowing, but there are a lot of really incredible athletes in our country. You can't take anything for granted, but I think once you get a little taste of this, and it's hard to stop. I see why Gevvie didn't stop.
Stone: It's addictive.
Wagner: It's addictive, and it's fun. It's really fun. I've got to go to an Olympics where you don't have to wear a mask, and you can go to the other events!
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