Josh and Andrew finish 5th, Gevvie advances to the A Final.

In their gold medal race, Andrew and Josh raced a great race in a very tight field, eventually finishing 5th. Sitting in 2nd place at the thousand, they traded blows with France, Ireland, Norway and South Africa, and continued to do so for the rest of the race. Despite finishing out of the medals, they recorded the highest ever finish by a US Lightweight Men’s double at the Olympic Games. It should be noted that not only has a US lightweight men’s double never previously been in an Olympic A Final, the last time a US Lightweight Men’s double was in the A final at the World Championships was in 1999. We are all incredibly proud of how well they represented Boston and the USA in Rio.

France, Ireland and Norway finished in the gold, silver and bronze medal positions, respectively. The World Best time holders and 2014 World Champions South Africa were 4th. Poland was sixth, behind the USA.

Gevvie drew a semifinal which contained 2012 Olympic Champion Mirka Knapkova, 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Fie Udby Erichsen, and 5 time Olympic Medalist Ekaterina Karsten (racing at her 7th Olympics), as well as 2015 Worlds Bronze Medalist Jingli Duan of China. Gevvie worked herself into a qualifying position early on in the race, and began chasing down front runner Magdalena Lobnig of Austria, who ultimately faded to third. Gevvie moved into second place at the thousand, and stayed there for the rest of the race, ultimately finishing second by half a second behind the Chinese sculler. All Olympic medal holders from the semifinal were relegated to the B-final.

Gevvie will race for gold tomorrow, at 9:44 AM Eastern Time. Please send fast thoughts care of Genevra Stone, Olympic Village, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.