The U.S. women’s double sculls duo of Gevvie Stone and Kristi Wagner took fifth in the Olympic regatta at Sea Forest Waterway. Stone, 36, and Wagner, 28, crossed the finish with a time of 6:52.98, 11.95 seconds behind the winner Romania. A U.S. boat has never won a medal in the women’s event at the Olympics.
A three-time Olympian, Stone won the silver medal in the women’s single at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The Newton, Massachusetts, native also raced the single at the 2012 London Olympics, placing first in the B final and seventh overall. Her father, Gregg Stone, coaches the women’s double. Wagner is competing on her first Olympic and senior national team.
The U.S. men’s four of Clark Dean, Michael Grady, Anders Weiss and Andrew Reed took fifth in in their race. With a time of 5:48.85, the four crossed the finish line 6.09 seconds behind first-place Australia.
Just one member of the boat had previous Olympic experience – Weiss raced the men’s pair at the 2016 Rio Olympics and placed fifth in the B final. Dean and Reed were members of the men’s four that qualified the boat for Tokyo by finishing fifth at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
Despite a lack of American medals, there were a plethora of exciting races on Wednesday. In the first four A finals, the first-place boats set Olympic bests – Romania in the women’s double sculls, France in the men’s double sculls and Australia in the women’s and men’s four. In the men’s quadruple sculls, the Netherlands set a world record. And in the women’s quad, China also set a world record.
