We blew our Olympic heat in Tokyo, then won gold: how to win a rowing race

Our Kiwi eight lost its heat at the Tokyo Olympics, then won the final. What changed in between was how we handled getting it wrong, and what we went back to.

How we got to the Tokyo heat

The crew that came out the back of COVID was completely different from the crew that went in. It was the great humbling for this crew, and we started to build momentum and speed we had never seen before.

We still had to qualify the boat. We got the green light to go to Lucerne for the last chance qualifying regatta, six weeks out from the Olympics, and we won it. Then we flew all the way back to New Zealand and spent two of those six weeks in hotel quarantine, which was a real pain. We got out, got back on the water, flew to Tokyo and spent a couple of weeks there getting acclimatised.

What happened to the New Zealand men's eight in the Tokyo heat?

We raced the heat and got beaten quite handily by a Dutch crew. We didn't row the way we'd trained, so we lost the heat and had to go through the repechage to make the final.

I'd been in the eight long enough to see both ends of it.

"I've been in the eight while it was absolutely dog shit."

I'd also been in it when it was amazing. In the bad years, a result like that meant faces down, people getting demoralised and pointing fingers. That's what I expected to see coming off the water in Tokyo.

Get my race morning ↗︎

What changed after the heat

It didn't happen. We came off and called it straight away.

"We came off and we were like, we literally just got that wrong."

I remember Hamish Bond saying, "Let's just live or die by the rhythm." We didn't row like that, and we knew exactly what we'd done wrong. The attitude coming off the water was all smiles. Dan Williamson was walking around with a massive grin on his face, and I thought, okay, this is a completely different eight to what we've had in the past.

That came from the culture we'd built: this is the standard we want to set for ourselves, and we're not going to stray away from it. Fixing it was like clicking our fingers.

"We went for a row the next day and it was like magic, absolute magic, just because we recommitted to what we know works and didn't chase other shiny objects."

In the repechage we dialled it in properly and rowed how we had trained. We won it. After that came the best row of my life, a 12k on the Sea Forest Waterway, and then we won the Olympic final.

Why the bad years made the difference

Before Tokyo I'd gone half a decade in the Kiwi eight without a result.

"I had no results for half a decade and was wondering why I was still doing the sport."

In 2018 we were the slowest eight in the world. In 2019 two Olympic champions joined our eight, and we still failed to qualify the boat for Tokyo. If you'd told me in 2018 that we'd win the Olympics a few years later, I'd have laughed.

Then, before Tokyo, we had a team meeting where we laid it all out in front of us: this is the reality of our situation, this is the truth of where we're at right now, and it's not good enough. Hamish cracked the whip, and every fast crew needs someone who does. People started actually talking the talk and then walking the walk, and ruthlessly fast sessions became normal.

I remember Tom leaning on my shoulder and screaming in my ear about how we had to transcend. Whatever that was, I was on board. From there it was trying to beat Hamish in training and take some scalps in the pair. That's what the sport's all about.

How to win a rowing race: row the way you trained

The race plan lesson is simple. Find the rhythm that works in training, then live or die by it on race day. In the heat we didn't, and a Dutch crew beat us quite handily. In the rep we did, and we won. In the Kiwi eight we talked a lot about letting the boat's rhythm drag the work out of you, instead of going looking for hard work.

And go in aiming to win. When our eight was going badly I used to sit on start lines hoping I wouldn't embarrass myself, and that's no way to race.

What to do after a bad race

1. Come off the water and say what actually went wrong. We knew exactly what we'd done.
2. Leave the faces down and the finger-pointing out of it.
3. Go back to the rhythm you've trained, and live or die by it.
4. Don't chase shiny objects. One bad race isn't a reason to change everything.
5. Get back in the boat and row it the way you know how.

Common mistakes

• Pointing fingers. In the bad years, that's what a loss looked like in our eight. In Tokyo nobody did it, and the next day's row was magic.
• Chasing something new. A new plan the night before the rep is a shiny object. We recommitted to what we knew worked.
• Thinking the heat decides it. We lost ours and won the Olympic final.

Sources: Rowing at the 2020 Summer Olympics, men's eight (Wikipedia): heats, repechage and final; Shaun Kirkham, New Zealand Olympic Team