Paris served up another day of speed, with a bit more west wind pushing the boats along. The man steering the fastest boat on the lake today, GB men's eight coxswain Harry Brightmore, hinted that grabbing gold today meant going hard right from the start.

"If you look at all of the A finals that have gone through at this regatta, every crew that has won has pretty much taken it by the scruff of the neck," said Brightmore.

That made the plan for his crew's race to gold pretty simple.

"We lined up on that start line knowing that we were going to sprint to the death, straight from the buzzer."

And that's how the GB men won the eight, exorcising their memories of only taking M8 bronze in Tokyo and missing out on men's pair and four golds here in Paris, by winning the big boat at the end of the Olympic Regatta.

Or, rather, at the previously scheduled end of the regatta, but more on that below.

The US Men grabbed the bronze in the eight--the first M8 medal since 2008 for America--which gives the USA two sets of medals to bring home, a solid improvement over the whole team's zero medal showing in Tokyo...and--along with the eight finals the US made here, a possible start to a turnaround for the new US system in just three years' time, with four more to prepare for the home Olympics in Los Angeles.

You can read a full report on the medal winners in the eight here, but that group, unfortunately, did not include the US women's eight, which raced to fifth today.

Two Medals and Eight A Finals for USA

Here's the list of US crew interviews from the final day in the mixed zone:

• M1x - Plihal's PR Time Leads to C Final Win
• W1x - Kohler Takes Fifth in Return to A Final After 12 Years
• W8 - 'Heartbreak' as USA Women's Eight Places Fifth
• M8 - A Gritty Race' - US Men's Eight Wins Bronze

We were able to catch up with USRowing High Performance Director Josy Verdonkschot again today at the end of all the racing, when he knew the final medal count.

"If we look at depth, we did pretty good, with the eight finals. We also wanted a little bit more medals, maybe three would have been satisfactory," Verdonkschot said. "In the end, it's always mixed feelings. I'm very grateful for what I was able to do. How the athletes bought in and that's the only way you can do it. You cannot make change if they do not buy in. And so I feel now that I let them down a bit.

"I do think we made a lot of changes, and that's one part of it. And then to perform at this stage is another aspect of it. As a coach I feel very happy. I think the men's four did what they could do. I think the men's eight did a great job. I think us not medaling in a women's event is pretty hard. Especially because I know that women are very grateful. I know that they really bought in. I know they worked their asses off."

A Broken Bus, A Dead Heat, and Some Subs

We can't say we didn't see a few things you don't see too often on this final day at Vaires-sur-Marne.

• a change of schedule when a broken bus left a M1x finalist stranded on his way to the course
• a 7th place tie when Mihai Churuta caught Sverri Nielsen on the line in the M1x B Final
• and not one but two subs in the mens eights, for Australia and Germany

The Australians had to swap Tim Masters in for a sick athlete, while the Germans, who raced with pair rower Julius Christ in the rep, put a recovered Mattes Schoenherr back in. The Germans did not switch the lineup back, though: they left the guy who stroked the crew in the rep, Torben Johannesen, in the stern. That gave Torben a chance to stroke the German eight in an Olympic Final almost exactly 12 years after his brother Eric stroked the Deutschlandachter to gold at the London Games.

The dead heat was a real thing:

(you can see here how close Nielsen and Churata were in the closing strokes as they came past row2k)

And the broken bus: well, that kept AIN athlete Yauheni Zalaty from arriving in time to get ready for the 10:30 M1x final, so the officials pushed the race to 11:30, making Olli Zeidler's race to his long-awaited race Olympic gold the actual last race of the regatta.

Zeidler was not the only world champion to win on the last day: Karolien Florijn won the women's single--and even both eights champs were repeat winners from a year ago.

Read the full report on the medal winners in the singles here: 'Goodbye to the Demons.'

Sibling Acts

When Florijn won the single, her brother Finn--a gold medallist as of Wednesday in the quad--came rushing down to see her on the dock when she landed. The venue managers didn't let him get that far, but he did see her before her medal ceremony.

"He was very happy for me," said Karolien. "He was very nervous and he doesn't watch the race."

She also talked about it was hard not to get excited when Finn won earlier in the week.

"I still had to do my semi-final and you have to stay calm, but of course I was so proud and happy for him."

The Florijns were not the only set of siblings to collecting matching hardware here--there were several--and on Sunday, Emily and Tom Ford joined the list, in the back-to-back eights races, when she won bronze and he won gold for Great Britain.

Dutch Domination

With four golds among their eight medals, the Dutch took the medal table, even though GB won eight medals total as well. Here is World Rowing's sum up (tho we are not 100% sure why the golds are at the bottom of the chart...)

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After the quadrennial the Dutch had, seeing them top the medal table is not a surprise, but it is worth remembering that it very nearly could have been two more golds, if not for few epic finishes (see men's double and women's quad).

And were there an efficiency trophy, Romania taking third on the table with just 12 rowers and a coxswain would win it going away, just as their women's eight did--but it certainly helps when your have row2k's #1 rower in the world, Simona Radis, stroking two of your crews.

Radis, center, celebrating with her boatmates after a long week of medalling in two boat classes

That closes the books on the Olympic Regatta, but row2k will be back at Vaires-sur-Marne in a few weeks for the Paralympics.

Notes From the Course

Looking a Little Lonely - Boatyard gets pretty empty, with only 8 races left on the final day at an Olympics. For all the massive infrastructure and crowds here, the boat yard as ghost town is perhaps the strangest thing about the last day of rowing at the Games. After all, there was a moment today when we were literally down to just six singles left to launch.

Spiffing up the Course - When we arrived for the last day of racing, they were power washing the signs underneath the finish tower from a launch so they would look good on TV, and in our photos, natch.

"Spectators Without Tickets" - Given what folks shelled out to see these races in the grandstand--which was a blast by all accounts, and on lots of social media feeds--you might wonder who the "Spectators Without Tickets" might be--well, that was what one volunteer called the geese flying in to find a spot on the course to watch the finals go by. That's certainly a pretty charitable nickname for nuisance geese and luckily, they were not a problem here.

Taken during the W2x Semis on Tuesday--maybe roar of crowd kept geese from messing with the actual races

Full Body Commentating - At least one of the Olympic gold medallists up in the media tribune doing commentary was really into describing the feeling of racing as the eights came down, pumping his legs as he described the leg drive, and pulling with his arms, the whole works.

All Hail the Medallists - The medal ceremony can be pretty stark: just the athletes and the presentation crew...but the scrum of family, loved ones, college teammates and pure hard core rowing geeks that gathered behind the grandstands to mob the medallists? Well, we need more of that in rowing for sure:

(it was a wild scene by the way, to the point where the venue staff stopped letting medallists out into the crowd, and eventually shooed the athletes away from the fences and out of sight in the hopes the crowd would disperse. But, hey, these Olympic medal winners are kind of a big deal...)