De Toldeo: we aimed for gold but we’re all smiles now
OLYMPIC COX Zoe De Toledo said she was still coming to terms with the enormity of winning a silver medal in the women’s rowing eights.
Ms De Toledo kept the team in sync as they battled back from last place at the halfway stage to storm home behind USA in the 2,000m race.
She told the Team GB website: “We had set out to go for gold so there was a moment of real disappointment.
“But we realised the women’s eight has never been on the Olympic podium before, so any colour was historic.
“It was pretty special and since then it’s been pretty mad. The support has been amazing.
“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It still feels very strange.”
Ms De Toledo, 28, added that she was still feeling the effects of the race, including losing her voice.
“I’m shouting all time, which is my job. I shout all sorts of things and call the tactics in the race as I direct the effort.
“Thankfully I have an amplifier and microphone and speakers in the boat so the rowers don’t have to be heard from 50m, which is the furthest away from me.
“But with the sound of boats rowing and oars, choppy water, the cameras and the fans you have to be quite loud. It has had an effect.
“My mum was a professional musi- cian in a previous life so we did a lot of singing growing up and I know how to project my voice. She also gave me nice short genes which helped with my coxing.”
Ms De Toledo’s mother, Laine, was accompanied by Zoe’s father, Teddi, and her husband, Magnus, in Rio.
Laine admitted that she was overcome with emotion in the aftermath of last Saturday’s race.
She said: “I was shouting like I’ve never done before and at the end I didn’t know what to do.
“You go through all the emotions. At the end I was crying, I was speechless and I was shaking. I was waving Union Jack oven gloves and shouting, ‘Go girls, go Zoe and go Team GB’.” Ms De Toledo’s family are planning a party on her return from Brazil next week. Simon Kaye, her grandfather, told the JC: “Everyone is so elated and excited.” He added: “To say you have a grand-daughter who has competed in the Olympics is something to be proud of. To see her with a silver medal around her neck is something else.”