A local medal

Saturday morning in Paris brought a trip out to one of the further venues from the city center, the nautical stadium, where Brewster Academy graduate Chris Carlson was rowing with his teammates in the men's eight.

I had the chance to talk to Chris immediately after he and his teammates won their opening race earlier in the week, a win that put them directly into Saturday's finals. He spoke highly of Brewster Academy and coach Nick Docter, who had convinced him to join the crew team after he came to the school in his sophomore year. His introduction to rowing came as a sophomore in high school and he parlayed that into 

I was aware heading into the event that the US had not won a medal in the men's eight since 2008, but given the team's success in the opening race and the fact that because of that win, the rowers didn't have to compete in another race after that opener leading into the final, I felt like they had a chance to bring home a medal.

But, that's why they run the race, you just never know. The US boat got out of the gate strong but the Netherlands (a boat the US beat in the opening race) and Great Britain pulled ahead. The US stayed in the bronze position for much of the race and held off the challenges from the boats behind to come up with the bronze medal.

It's been a pleasure to cover five Olympics and this is one of only a few times I've had someone with such close local ties bring home a medal. It was nice to see Dover diver Jessica Parrotto win silver in Tokyo, but Dover isn't the most local for me. Mikaela Shiffrin spent time in the Upper Valley as a kid, but again, that's not local. New Hampton School graduate Annalisa Drew came within inches of winning a freestyle skiing medal in PyeongChang. The only other local with the medal is New Hampton School graduate Cayla Barnes, who played for the US women's hockey team and won some hardware in PyeongChang and Beijing.

To me, it matters now if you win a medal or come up short, I'm excited for anyone who excels enough in their sport to make it to the Olympics. Kudos to Chris Carlson and the hard work that he put in to get to Paris and the hard work he and his teammates put in to bring home the medal.


The US boat, with Chris Carlson in the middle, rows between winner Great Britain and runner-up Netherlands during the men's eight finals on Saturday in Torcy.

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