McLean rower Claire Collins has made it to the final round of the women’s eight event at the Paris Olympics.
Collins and the rest of the American women’s eight team will compete for a medal on Saturday (Aug. 3) after they won a repechage or trial heat this morning (Thursday), racing against four other teams at the Nautical Stadium-Flatwater in France.
Team USA placed second in its first qualifying heat on Monday (July 29), finishing about seven seconds behind Romania, but the repechage gave the five losing teams another chance to secure one of four remaining spots in the finals.
The U.S. team won the repechage with a time of 6:03.93, beating Canada by less than a second. As the last-place finisher, Denmark got eliminated, but Australia and Italy will also have a chance to vie for the gold medal on Saturday.
Collins previously competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when she was part of the Women’s Four team. While Team USA didn’t medal that year, she said she was still proud of their performance amid the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The women’s eight final will start at 4:50 a.m. EST on Saturday. Team USA hopes to continue a good week in rowing after the men’s four won gold this morning, giving the U.S. its first gold medal in rowing since 2004 and its first in that particular event since 1960.
Looking at Fairfax County’s other Olympic athletes, Oakton fencer Hadley Husisian made the second round of the women’s individual épée contest, but she lost on Saturday (July 27) to Kong Man Wai Vivian from Hong Kong. The U.S. women’s épée team was defeated by Poland in the table of eight on Tuesday (July 30), with Italy ultimately taking the gold.
At 5 a.m. EST tomorrow (Friday), Oakton resident Greg Duncan will represent the U.S. with diving partner Tyler Downs in the men’s synchronized 3-meter springboard diving finals. Then, at 9 a.m. EST, soccer forward Griffin Yow, a Clifton native, will play with Team USA in the men’s football quarterfinals against Morocco.
