Digging deep for a silver lining
At the Summer Olympics four years ago in London, Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee didn’t make the A final. Four years before that, Jennerich couldn’t even win a seat in a boat she’d qualified for Beijing.
On Friday, with silver medals draped around their necks and the emotion of the day still written in their faces, they were asked about their journey together and what this moment meant.
“It’s difficult to put into words,” Obee said.
Then she did, as beautifully as she and her partner had just rowed the course at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.
“I feel so thankful to be in a partnership with Lindsay,” the 24-year-old from Victoria said. “I think there are people with Olympic gold medals right now and I don’t know if they have the connection Lindsay and I have.
“We’ve had a lot of downs together from stuff in the organization to results, but Lindsay always has my back and I have hers. We weren’t using each other to get to the Olympic podium. I want it for her as much as I want it for myself. It’s a pure friendship.”
As she spoke, Obee paused to compose herself a couple of times and Jennerich was there, arm around her shoulder, still at her back.
The women’s lightweight double parlayed a desperate charge over the final 1,000 metres and their own indomitable will into a silver medal on Friday, Canada’s first and, to date, only medal of the Olympic regatta. Sitting fifth at the halfway mark of the race, the double rowed through New Zealand, South Africa and China and threatened the winning Dutch boat at the 250-metre mark before they held on for silver.
“Lindsay told me we were fourth and I thought, ‘We’re definitely going to win a medal,’” Obee said. “I was so confident in our ability over that last 1,000 and our last 250 is so strong. The aura in the boat felt like we’re charging and it could be gold.”
Jennerich was asked if they just needed another 100 metres to reel in the Dutch double of Ilse Paulis and Maaike Head.
“No,” she said with a laugh. “We would have had a bronze and it might have been fourth. That’s why I’m so OK with it.”