Canada’s rowing eight is battle tested, and back on the podium

The women’s eight is back where they belong, on the podium at the Summer Olympic Games.

For a second straight Games, and sixth time in Olympic history, Canada has won a medal in women’s rowing eight.

And for a second straight Games, Canada’s road to the podium did not come without some adversity.

“What I love about this group of women is when we get backed into a corner, we fight, and we fight together, we do it together,” said coxswain Kristen Kit.

“I saw an opportunity, and anything can happen in an Olympic final. We knew that going into the race and we seized that opportunity.”

At the start of the week, the rowing eight opened Paris 2024 with a time of 6:21.31 in their heat – only the fifth fastest out of seven nations. Heat winners Great Britain clocked in at a time over five seconds faster than Canada. The defending Olympic champions did not look like a serious contender for the podium.

But just like in 2021, Canada used the repechage to improve on their run before the final. In Tokyo, the crew rowed to a Canadian record time in the repechage, and in Paris, they improved on their heat time by 16.5 seconds.

In Saturday’s final, Canada came blazing out of the game and led after 500 metres. They were passed by Romania shortly after but held their podium position through the final 1500, holding off a late charge from Great Britain to come away with silver.

The defending Olympic champions covered the 2000-metre course in five minutes, 58.84 seconds, their fastest time of the week, to earn silver.

“It’s never over until it’s over, and these girls fought,” said Kit. “They were still fighting right until the line – we were pushing as hard as we could to catch Romania.

Avalon Wasteneys, Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Sydney Payne, and coxswain Kristen Kit have become two-time medallists in the rowing eight as they returned from the gold medal crew in Tokyo 2020.

Caileigh Filmer, who won bronze in women’s pair in Tokyo, joins four of her crew members with a second Olympic medal.

In 2019, Filmer took three months away from rowing to focus on her mental health and was unsure if she would return to the sport. But with support from family, friends, and teammates, she returned to compete. Now she’s a two-time Olympic medallist.

READ: Caileigh Filmer: Talking openly about mental health helped me on my path to win an Olympic medal

“Coming back into the sport, I was just inspired to help the legacy of Canadian women rowing, and I was inspired by the women who were in that boat that won gold (In Tokyo).”

Abby Dent and Maya Meschkuleit made their debut in Paris in style. Kristina Walker, rowing in her second Games, also earned her first medal.

Since the last Olympics, the women’s eight had won Pan Am Games gold at Santiago 2023, and bronze at the 2022 World Championships.

In 2024, they placed first at the Rowing World Cup, striking gold in Lucerne in May with a time of 06:04.47. 

For Canada, it’s the 44th medal all-time in rowing, trailing only athletics and swimming in most successful summer sports all-time.

“I am just completely fulfilled,” Filmer said. Everyone in the world better watch out because Canadian rowing is here and it’s not leaving anytime soon.”