Best ever Games for ParalympicsGB Rowing at Paris 2024
Great Britain has recorded its best ever Para Rowing performance and topped the medal table, winning with three gold medals and one silver at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Credit: Benedict Tufnell / British Rowing
The British national anthem played out three times across the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on the final day of the Paralympic Rowing Regatta, as all four of the ParalympicsGB boats took home a medal.
Lauren Rowles became the first rower from any country to win three Paralympic gold medals as she and her PR2 Mixed double sculls (PR2 Mix 2x) partner, Paralympic debutant and former Royal Engineer Commando, Gregg Stevenson won in fine style pulling ahead of the Chinese in the final 500m of the race to take their place at the top of the podium, maintaining their unbeaten streak during the Paris cycle.
Credit: Benedict Tufnell / British Rowing
Lauren said: “Out of my three Paralympic gold medals, this is definitely the best one yet! To do it for the third time in a row – history was made today. To have a bit of the Eiffel Tower in these medals and to do it with Gregg has been incredible – he’s been the best part about it.
“In our event, people go out there hard. It’s the Paralympic finals so you show up or you show out and today China showed up. They’ve been chasing us for years now and I knew today they would give it some. We wanted to push them to the absolute limit and today we knew we had that speed and surge coming into the finish line.
“We’ve never seen the audience so packed out in rowing before, and I think that really shows how Paralympic sport is going. Gregg’s got two young boys and I’ve got my son Noah who is five months old now, and it’s about a lot more than medals now, it’s about being role models to the boys. Our families and partners are our absolute rocks, Jude has been alone single parenting for five weeks now whilst I’ve been in a boat with Gregg. Our families allow us to achieve this, so it goes without saying that these medals today are for our families and for our boys.”
Greg said: “Having Lauren and our coach Nick Baker around is all the experience I needed to race that race. For the last few months we’ve said we’ve got to race until the last stroke and that our competition will bring something you don’t expect. I was really impressed with China, what a row for them! They took us right to the end and as soon as I felt we had the momentum I had this little grimace and a smile, like ‘we’re going!’. This is epic. To turn up, work hard, be a role model for my kids and hang out with Lauren who works hard and just achieves is the cherry on top.”
Credit: Benedict Tufnell / British Rowing
The PR1 Men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x) saw GB’s Benjamin Pritchard win an incredible gold medal, finishing 11.37 seconds ahead of Ukraine’s Roman Polianskyi in silver. Benjamin’s phenomenal regatta started with a Paralympic Best Time in the heats and ended as Paralympic Champion.
Ben said: “It’s been all about today and the process. It came off and now I have a gold medal. We are athletes as well as disabled people. We have to do the hard work that athletes do on top of living our disabilities in day to day life. There may be kids with spinal injuries who want to be doctors, producers, artists, whatever it may be – they should be encouraged to do whatever they want to do. The more visibility we have in front of and behind the scenes the better.”
“I had to stay in my lane to do what I did. People have tried different things to win over the past few years – people are rapid off the start in this boat class. But you have to be realistic – it’s a 2,000m race. I stayed in my lane and didn’t know how far ahead I was, but as long as Roman was in my sight – I knew he was what I had to worry about. I’ve beaten him twice here on this lake, so I knew I could do it. Our whole field has moved on 24 seconds in the past three years, any one of the 5 athletes who have raced 2K in under 9 minutes could have gotten gold today. It’s the closest the PR1 Men’s single sculls field has ever been, we haven’t won a gold medal in the PR1 Men’s single sculls field since 2011, so this feels really special.”
The PR3 Mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+), Great Britain’s most successful boat, is now unbeaten for 14 years after Frankie Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Josh O’Brien, Ed Fuller and cox Erin Kennedy added to a thriving legacy in the final race of the Paralympic Rowing Regatta.
Giedre said: “It’s been fourteen years of winning for this boat, but I think every single year has been pushing us on. We’ve been taking trust from the teammates before us, there has always been an overlap of at least one or two athletes from previous Games so we draw what we can from them and keep pushing on and try to make them proud.
Credit: Benedict Tufnell / British Rowing
“Eighteen years ago today I was in a car accident that led me to becoming a Paralympic athlete. It’s an anniversary that I’m going to celebrate now with a gold medal. Every year this is going to be a golden moment. The Paralympic Games is like a second chance. I always wanted to be an athlete when I was a child, and I thought that chance was taken from me and finding out in my 20s that I can still pursue my dream as a Paralympian was something that I latched on to and clearly didn’t give up.”
Erin paid credit to the crew and the reserves in the squad: “This project has had so many people involved – someone we really want to give a shout out to is Morgan Fice-Noyes, he has been with us in training and the the sixth member of this crew this year.”
Keeping it short and sweet, Josh said: “I took my first stroke in the same season I won gold, so it’s pretty surreal.”
Making their ParalympicsGB debut in the PR3 Mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix 2x) were Sam Murray and Annie Caddick, who also made history as the first crew to win silver in this new boat class.
Sam: “It’s surreal at this moment, we’re trying to take stock of it all but we’re proud of our performance. I didn’t think this was even on my horizon. I left rowing and I was content with where I’d got to – and then it was at the start of the 2023 season when I met Annie, spoke to our Head Coach Nick Baker and realised we could make a crack of this, and now we have a silver medal!”
Annie added: “It was such a tight race with everyone right there – the adrenaline rush the whole time was going. We didn’t settle, we had to keep pushing. At the end Sam said “we’ve got to go!” and I felt him surge, I had to hold on and go with him. We’ve built trust and a bond, so no matter how bad you’re feeling – if one of us goes, we both go. Having this medal means a lot. It’s been a long journey to get here, I’m so proud of us.”
