For this family, it’s Games on
They all rowed at Trinity, now the 3 Graves brothers are aiming for another shot at the Olympics
In 2016, John Graves and his older brother Peter missed going to the Olympics by 0.7 of a second.
Peter had already rowed in the Olympics in 2012. It would have been John’s first trip. It was supposed to be Peter’s last.
But this week, here the Graves brothers are again — along with their older brother, Tom — at the Olympic rowing trials in Sarasota, Fla., trying to get a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
All three brothers rowed at Trinity College, following in the footsteps of their father, Harry, who graduated in 1978. Peter, 36, lives in Glastonbury; Tom, 38, in California and John, 32, in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Peter doesn’t like to talk about the race in Switzerland. He and John were in the U.S. quadruple scull in Lucerne trying to qualify for the Rio Olympics. The boat finished fourth, 0.7 seconds behind third-place New Zealand. The top two teams were to go to
Rio but the Russians, who won the race, were disqualified for doping and so the U.S. ended up third.
“Boy, I’m getting angry just thinking about that,” Peter said Wednesday from Sarasota, where the U.S. trials begin Monday. “For me, personally, it really discouraged me. That was going to be my last race, my last Olympic push.
“I think we had accepted the fact we lost outright and then a few weeks later, when we heard that the boat that pretty much waked us in the race was doping, it really took the wind out of my sails and I was pretty upset.
“I haven’t been at the elite level for the last four years but John and Tom both have pressed on.”
John, who has been on the senior national team since 2013, went right back into training.
“For me, it really lit a fire,” John said. “I didn’t really take any time off. I went right into
the next [Olympic] cycle. I was hell-bent on making the 2020 team. I wanted to make sure that if I was in that position again that I got it right. That’s what this journey’s about.”
John, who will compete in the single scull, is the Olympic hopeful, his brothers say. Medal hopeful, Peter says.
“I say medal, yeah,” Peter said. “Let’s get it on paper now, John.”
“I would say I greatly benefited from being the youngest brother,” John said. “As far as following their lead and being able to learn from their successes and their failures, that’s something they haven’t had the benefit of, having someone
go before them and pave the way.”
Peter and Tom will compete in the double sculls, but Peter is all about helping Tom train right now. Tom will try to qualify in the quadruple sculls during another trial in April.
“John is our gold medal hope for Tokyo,” Peter said. “Tom and I are really supporting him and living the dream at the same time.”
The rowing all started with their dad Harry. When they were younger, they lived in England for a year and Harry would take them all out, one by one, on his double scull on the Thames River.
“Tom and I just got off the water, so did John — and our dad is currently on the water on the Olympic trials course, practicing,” Peter said last week. “He is 64.”
Harry went to Trinity and one by one, each of his sons found their way to Hartford and made their mark on the rowing program. In 1976, Harry’s eight boat won Trinity’s first title at the Henley Royal Regatta in England and Tom and Peter were in the boat that won the school’s second title at Henley, in the Temple Challenge Cup, in 2005, Tom’s senior year. In 2007, his senior year, Peter was voted the Trinity’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete, after his boat won four New England championships, two ECAC championships and two times at the Head of the Charles. John was a two-sport captain at Trinity, playing soccer and rowing. He graduated in 2010.
Peter and Tom tried to qualify for Beijing in 2008 but didn’t make it. Peter
made it in 2012 with the quadruple scull in London, where his boat finished fourth. And then in 2016, he and John just missed qualifying.
“We were neck and neck
with the New Zealand boat for that last qualifying spot and had kind of accepted the fact that we were behind enough that we weren’t going to beat the second place boat and
then when we found out the Russians were doping, the 7⁄10ths of a second that separated us and New Zealand — Peter and I both, you go back and you think about that race and you’re just wondering, ‘Man, could I have done this or that to get those point-7 seconds’ that you didn’t really know were important at the time because you didn’t think Russia would be disqualified,” John said.
“It was a really tough experience but at the same time, I think both of us were really proud of how fast our boat was and the position we were in and we know if we had been able to go to the Olympics, we would have performed well.”
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