The US Men's eight won the bronze medal on Saturday in Paris, behind the British world champions and the Dutch.

This is the first Olympic medal for an American eight in sixteen years, since the 2008 bronze in Bejing.

row2k caught up with Clark Dean, Christian Tabash, Nick Rusher and Evan Olson after the race.

row2k - Can you walk us through the race and how the boat felt when you got down to racing the final?

Clark Dean - We've said it before every race, but we've never had a flat piece. We haven't been training for a long time compared to some of these other crews, but for an American eight, we've been together for a long time. We all knew if we went out there and did something at the level that we've been doing in practice, we would get a good result. It wasn't gold, it wasn't silver, but it got us on the podium and I think I speak for everyone when I say we're really proud of what we did. It was a super fast, competitive race and we were in it the whole time.

row2k - What did the body of the piece feel like, Christian, in the middle of the boat?

Christian Tabash - We had a good start and we were aggressive. It was a strong tailwind, which compresses a lot of the margins. I think one of our strengths is the ability to change speeds. In these conditions, we found that a bit more difficult to close in at the very end because the speeds were quicker, the margins were tighter and we just left a little bit too much for too late. Hindsight is 20-20. We put down as good of a piece as we could, but it just wasn't in our favor.

row2k - Pieter, some questions for you as the stroke seat. All the races for this eight have been high stakes, from FOPQR to the World Cup against the British, to here at the Olympics. How has this boat responded to those challenges through the season?

Pieter Quinton - It built on itself. Each race is an opportunity to do better. We had a lot of confidence in the two higher stakes races we put together before this, the FOQR and the World Cup. We certainly took confidence going into this race, that we knew how to perform under pressure. I think we really leveraged the race opportunities we had this season out there today.

row2k - These eights races develop so quickly, so you have to be on it from the jump to get any kind of medal, right?

Pieter Quinton - Absolutely. We knew we had to come out and put our foot down early. Credit to the other crews, they really pushed the pace in the first 1000 and it was a little too much for us, but I think we responded well.

At the line: GBR, NED, USA

row2k - You've been in the eight throughout this cycle. How has the this group developed over the past few years? What you have felt building in the boat from year to year?

Pieter Quinton - There's a great saying you either win or you learn, and we did a lot of learning the past three years. All that paved the way for this performance today, to come away with a medal. We started this project three years ago and it's a huge testament to the guys in this crew and the coaching staff. We've had three coaches over three years, and each of those coaches brought something to this crew. Every guy who has been in and out of the boat for the past three years brought something to this crew. It was a whole team effort top to bottom, trying to get this boat back on the podium after sixteen years. I'm really proud to have been a part of that project and really proud of everyone who contributed throughout these three years to get it done.

row2k - Is this the beginning of something, what you guys have built here as as a boat and over the past three years?

Nick Rusher - We've definitely gotten faster and faster. Obviously, the goal would be to win a gold medal at LA, on home soil. Just being here and hearing the crowd roar, it's so different from World Championships. For a lot of us, it's our first Olympic Games, so it's definitely a huge motivating factor to come back and win one on home soil. It's a really determined group of guys. What defines us is work ethic and competitiveness rather than ego or anything like that. We'll take some time with what we did and then attack again.

row2k - So, it's not over for this group?

Nick Rusher - Definitely not. I don't know if we'll end up in the eight, all together, but we'll definitely still be rowing.

Question - How would you describe the conditions?

Clark Dean - It was pretty variable. When we first got here, it was really windy and we thought it was going to be a blazing fast race. By the time we were at the start, it died down a little bit. I don't even know what the final time was, but conditions didn't seem didn't seem ridiculous in one way or the other. It definitely was not the gusty headwind that we saw in the heat, where we went 5:29.

Rowing back in podium gear, with coxwain Rielly Milne at seven

row2k - Clark, you're a returning Olympian and while Tokyo was an odd Games with COVID, what kinds of experiences about racing at the Olympics were you able to bring to your second Games? Did knowing what to expect help you, and were you able to share those lessons with the newer guys?

Clark Dean - It's been extremely different from Tokyo and it really feels like a totally new environment to me, but I think the biggest thing that we've been saying is that the Olympics is not like a World Championships. It's a much smaller race. There's fewer boats. There are fewer races actually happening.

And then the race and the event is not built around rowing. At a World Championships, everyone's there to row. At the Olympics, rowing is something that the IOC figures out. So you're having these long bus rides, and maybe the bus driver gets lost, or you're in the village and there's a lot more chaos and distractions. In the village, people are medaling and partying, and we're trying to stay focused. Those are the things that we made a good point of getting dialed in and being ready to expect coming into this, so we didn't get swept up in the festival of it.

row2k - And is there a mentality you can draw on, because you'd been on an Olympics start line before?

Clark Dean - I think there's multiple ways to look at it. The way I like to look at it and what we were saying before the race is that it is just another 2k. We did one a few days ago here, and we did it a couple of weeks ago in Italy. We've done them in Princeton, and in Switzerland, and in Sarasota. At the end of the day, yes, it's the most important race of our lives, but we've gone through practice and done countless 2ks--on the erg, in the eight, in fours, whatever it may be. We had done enough so that we knew if we went out there today and had a good piece or an okay piece, it would get us a medal and that's what happened.

row2k - Evan, you talked with us after the final qualifier and told us that you knew this was a fast boat. Can you talk a little about how you guys brought that speed here to Paris and used it today? Evan Olson - It is a fast boat, and there are things we can execute on any day. Every day, we go out there, we execute. I think that we went out there and we had a good piece. The Brits and the Dutch were just a little bit quicker today. I think we can take pride in what we accomplished, in getting the American eight back on the medal stand. That's something we can all be proud of.

row2k - Can you talk a little but about what it took to build a boat like this, one fast enough to qualify and then medal?

Evan Olson - No shortcuts. Do your best everyday. You don't have to beat everyone else, you just have to beat who you were yesterday. If you keep beating who you were yesterday and you improve little by little, you'll find a lot of improvement. All the guys in this boat, we're a racing boat. The guys in this boat are really gritty, and we went out there and we had a gritty race. I think we can be proud of what we accomplished. The Dutch and the Brits, they're classy crews as well.

Full results from today's racing can be found here.

Christian Tabash takes a selfie with the crowd