Double Sculls, Women

2012 Olympic Champion in the Women’s Double Sculls, Katherine Grainger of Great Britain, returned to the Games in Rio to defend her crown with a new partner, Victoria Thornley, despite having taken a two-year break from rowing. In her absence, only New Zealand, led by Zoe Stevenson, had appeared on the World Championship podium more than once, finishing runner-up in 2013 and taking the title in 2014 and 2015. In Rio she was partnered with the other 2015 World Champion, Eve MacFarlane. The reigning European Champions were Belarus’ Tatsiana Kukhta and Yuliya Bichik, the latter of whom was an Olympic bronze medalist from 2004 and 2008 Olympics in the coxless pairs. More serious threats, however, were Poland’s Natalia Madaj and Magdalena Fularczyk and Lithuania’s Donata Vištartaitė and Milda Valčiukaitė. The Polish competitors were the 2013 European and 2014 World runners-up and the 2014 and 2015 European Champions, while Fularczyk was also an Olympic bronze medalist from 2012 and a 2009 World Champion. The Lithuanians were the 2013 European and World Champions and the 2014 and 2015 European runners-up.

Lithuania, Poland, and New Zealand won their preliminary heats, with the Britons coming second in the Lithuanians’ heat and the Belarusians a distant third behind Poland. The Greek duo of Aikaterini Nikolaidou and Sofia Asoumanaki, the 2015 World silver medalists, captured the first semifinal, ahead of Lithuania, but the real surprise came with the elimination of MacFarlane and Stevenson, who were edged out of Final A by Americans Meghan O’Leary and Ellen Tomek by a margin of 0.05 seconds. Poland again dominated in the second semifinal, with Great Britain nearly two seconds behind. In the final, Poland, Great Britain, and Lithuania finished in that order, relatively well spaced-out and well ahead of the rest of the pack.