Lola Anderson shares heartbreaking story of her late father to Georgina Brayshaw's recovery from paralysis: Team GB rowers send tears flowing at Paris 2024 Olympics

“My name is Lola Anderson and I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics and represent Team GB in rowing and, if possible, win a gold medal.”

So wrote the British rower in a diary entry 13 years ago having been inspired by watching a home Olympic Games at London 2012.

Almost immediately, the self-conscious teen threw the page in the bin, cringing at her self-perceived cockiness.

Unbeknownst to Anderson, her father, Don, retrieved that crumpled up piece of paper and kept it locked safely away.

It wasn't until his daughter won the world under-23 title in quadruple sculls with her crew in 2019, that Don retrieved the note and gave it back to his daughter.

It would be the last of his daughter's races that he would ever watch. Don died of cancer that he'd been battling for a number of years, a few months later.

On Wednesday, 31 July, the shared dream came true in Paris as Anderson won Olympic gold as part of the women's quadruple sculls, beating the Netherlands with the last pull of the oars to become Olympic champion.

Playing catch-up throughout the race at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, it took a photo-finish to crown the Brits winners by just 0.015 seconds.

Germany won bronze, with defending champions, People's Republic of China, sixth.

"I'd forgotten about [the diary entry] obviously," Anderson told the BBC just before collecting her medal with her teammates, "but a couple of years ago my dad reminded me and I know that he'd be so, so proud. I'm thinking about him a lot right now and it's really lovely."

Alongside Anderson in the crew were Hannah Scott, and Lauren Henry, who swapped theatre school for rowing, and is the youngest member of the Team GB rowing squad at 22.

The final member of the crew, Georgina Brayshaw, also has quite the story herself.

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Georgina Brayshaw recovered from paralysis to win Olympic gold

Fifteen years ago, Georgina Brayshaw, then aged 15, was placed into an induced coma after a serious horse-riding accident.

With no memory of the incident, she spent a year paralysed down her left side.

“I could only use my right arm and only smile with half my face," said Brayshaw. She also had to learn simple things like running again, but not wanting to be different from her peers at school, she just pushed through.

At university, Brayshaw picked up rowing and soon joined the GB Rowing Olympic talent programme. By 2023, the British women were world champions and heading into the Olympic Games Paris 2024 wanting to match that feat in a discipline GB had never won before.

And yet Brayshaw still has to manage the fall-out from the accident so long ago.

“I was quite weak on my left, or I just didn’t quite have control of my left-hand side," she said. "It’s taken quite a lot of extra training to get those neurons firing properly but even now I notice the differences. But I just kind of accept myself as I am what I am."

What she is now, along with her teammates, is an Olympic gold medallist.

"It feels like it's been ages working towards this," said Anderson, "and as a crew we're always process driven and always looking towards what comes next but you knid of get to the end of the cycle like this and it doesn't get bigger than this.

"It's really quite overwhleiming. Just to exerpience this, I'm really grateful."