Jubilant Guerette misses gold by sliver
- |
BEIJING - All around her, everyone was going fast-forward in a blur of blades as the finish line was coming up. Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria and Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, who have been the world's two best single scullers for years, were going after each other for the gold, and Michelle Guerette was right with them.
"Hang in there, hang in there," she told herself.
Guerette did more than that yesterday, more than any US woman has done at the Olympics in two decades, coming out of fifth place to grab the silver medal, missing the gold by less than half a second.
"It was better than my best race," exulted the 27-year-old Harvard graduate from Bristol, Conn., after she'd finished between Neykova and Karsten, the three-time defending world titlist and double Olympic gold medalist. "I'm thrilled. I can't see straight, but I'm thrilled."
It was the best American performance at the Games since Anne Marden of Concord, Mass., finished second in 1988, and it was a brilliant tactical race by Guerette, who resisted the impulse to chase the early leaders, then stalked them. It was what Guerette likes to call "feral rowing," and it provided a huge emotional boost to the American side, which was hoping for two more medals in the men's and women's eights today.
"Michelle proved that she's got the mettle of any champion I've run into," said Charley Butt, the Harvard men's lightweight crew coach who directs Guerette's workouts on the Charles. "She's got the complete package."
It took more than strength, speed and heart for Guerette to make the podium at Shunyi Park. It took the racing savvy that Guerette has developed over the last quadrennium, after shifting out of the quadruple (where she finished fifth in Athens) to the most competitive event in women's rowing.
She had been in and out of the medals at the world regatta, so Guerette knew the players intimately and knew that she had to let the race play out before she made her move midway through the 2,000-meter race.
"If you run too hot too early, you can get run down," said Butt, who watched from a bicycle along the course. "Our thinking was that we wanted to consolidate third place. Take control of the Czech (Miroslava Knapkova) and the Chinese (Zhang Xiuyun), then go after the big game."
That was Neykova and Karsten, who have been rivals since their junior days. They went to the wire eight years ago in Sydney, where Karsten won by a hundredth of a second after a lengthy video review, and finished second and third behind Germany's Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski in Athens.
This time, they were 1-2 going into the home stretch, but Guerette was right with them a couple of lanes over, ready to crank into overdrive.
"I knew once the sprint started, I couldn't let up," she said.
That's how her planned 30 power strokes became 45, as Guerette overtook Karsten, then went after Neykova.
It was feral rowing at its finest. As anyone who has raced her at the Head of the Charles can testify, there is nothing more unsettling than seeing Guerette, who stands just a shade under 6 feet and weighs 175 pounds, with throttle open full and gaining ground in big gulps.
If she'd had 10 more strokes, she might have caught the Bulgarian, whom she outsprinted by two seconds over the final 500 meters.
"But I didn't think I had 10 more strokes left in me," said Guerette, who finished in 7:22.78 to Neykova's 7:22.34. "I like to think that was everything I had."
It was more than enough to put her on the podium next to Neykova, the 35-year-old mother of two who'd won two world crowns but never the Olympic gold.
"Silver medal?" mused Guerette. "I had my best race. I'll take that."
A medal of any hue would have been fine with Guerette, who works as a sales associate at the
On a day when swimmer Michael Phelps earned a million-dollar bonus from sponsor Speedo for his seventh gold, would a savvy silver be worth at least a major appliance from her employer?
"I can use a washing machine," Guerette reckoned. "But I think a couple of days off, that's what I'm looking forward to."
