British rowers Grant and Craig reframe mindset after missing out on Olympic medal by 0.01 seconds

"It sounds very aggressive, it sounds very psychopathic," British rower Emily Craig tells Olympics.com in February when talking about a poster she has on a wall at home.

The image shows the photo-finish of herself and teammate Imogen Grant finishing the women's lightweight double sculls final at Tokyo 2020 just 0.01 seconds off a medal.

"It's there," Craig says while seated alongside Grant on a video call after a training session just five months out from Paris 2024, "to say, yes we came fourth, but that's the fourth I'm talking about."

Ever since that race, the duo have been unbeaten, winning back-to-back World and European titles and every World Cup in which they have raced. A world best time of 6:40.47 was also secured at the second World Rowing Cup of the 2023 season in Varese, culminating in a prestigious Women’s Crew of the Year accolade at the World Rowing Awards.

The pair have secured a quota for their boat class for Team GB for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, courtesy of winning the 2023 World title, so the focus is now on the build-up to the XXXIII Olympiad that begins 26 July.

Immediate focus turns to the first World Rowing Cup of the season, which takes place 12-14 April, and it's a return to the happy hunting ground in Italy in which they set their record-breaking time. So, all good vibes there. The European Championships in Szeged, Hungary then follow from 3-5 May.

But how did they get to this point from such a crushing blow? What's it like to head into an Olympic year almost nailed on for Olympic gold? How do they manage the mental agility around the favourites tag? After coming so close to a medal last time out, what did they learn from that experience that's made them so dominant ever since?

Olympics.com spoke to them both to find out.

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On the day that Olympics.com speaks to the rowers, the designs of the Paris 2024 medals are revealed. When asked whether they ignore seeing things like that as a point of superstition or embrace it as extra motivation, the pair are divergent.

"I'm very much trying to not look at it," says Craig of the medals which drew attention for the fact a piece of the Eiffel Tower is embedded in each, while Grant offers: "I thought that that was pretty cool."

But framing the fact they are in a very different place to when an Olympic medal was part of the conversation in Tokyo, the chat takes a humorous turn.

*"*I just wonder where they got the extra bits from? Hopefully, they didn't take it off the top."

"Maybe it was off the bottom and the tower's a bit shorter now?"

To clarify, the pieces are part of the original iron used in the construction of the Eiffel Tower, which were removed when work was undertaken to modernise part of the iconic structure.

The pair smile after the exchange, something they were very far from doing on 29 July 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay, when despite being in contention for a medal they were pipped to the podium in the last stroke by the Dutch crew. Italy claimed gold with France, silver.

So, what did that moment feel like when they realised they had come fourth after going into the Olympic final as favourites.

They take a breath.

Heartbreak on Tokyo Bay

"It was probably just the biggest anti-climax that's ever happened. Ever," reveals Craig.

**"**Yeah," agrees Grant. "I think Emily, because she sits behind me, she can see a bit more of the other boats, so I think she had a bit more of an idea of maybe what had happened and where we were."

Due to the close finish, the twosome had an agonising wait to find out if they'd secured bronze.

*"*In rowing, especially when it's tight margins like that, they have a board to the side where the results will come up with the times," says Grant. "So I remember not really knowing, and I'm waiting because one and two came up very quickly, and then three and four took a very long time because that was a photo finish.

"But then when three, Netherlands, came up, yeah, I almost felt nothing. It was just very strange. We've done all of this work and done all of this racing, and then it was, that was it. There's no medal ceremony to go to. You come fourth, you get out of the boat, and you put the boat away, and then you go home," says Grant.

"It wasn't even just the training and all of that, like, we had to get through so much with just getting to the start line with all of the stuff going on with COVID," continues Craig, who adds that the pair had won their semi-final, which usually means you're one of the two quickest boats so at least a medal looked on the cards.

"It wasn't just like a year-long build-in, like it was an 18-month build-in with so much more added stress from the global pandemic... And then, after all of that, to then just be like, oh, I guess we're done then."

"Coming home without a medal really, really sucked," says Grant. "It's the only regatta that we've raced in a combination where we haven't medalled and haven't been on the podium."

• Paris 2024 Olympic Rowing Schedule

Breathing space

It took until February 2022, says Craig, for her to decide that she might want to make a return to the sport, after an organic break from each other and the sport had panned out.

"I spent six months working at an auction house," says Grant, "and I knew even in the run-in to the Games, I knew that I had to go back to the University of Cambridge and finish my medical degree, and so there was some enforced separation there as well. We couldn't be doing the same thing and showing back up to training as if nothing had happened, but I'm quite glad for it because I think it let us process it and come back on our own terms."

Juggling studying medicine at one of the world's most prestigious universities with her rowing career, "is probably the hardest thing I'll ever do in my life," admits the graduate now. "I'm really proud of making it through.

"There were a lot of times where people said, I don't know if that's a very good idea. Maybe you should just choose one of them for now and stick to that. But I'm very stubborn, and so I refused to give either up for the other.

"There were definitely times where it felt like I was half arsing both of them... and those were probably the most difficult times, feeling like I was letting everyone down and myself down as well.

"But ultimately, I got through it from the support of Emily, from the support of the coaches at British Rowing, and also the support of the medical school at Cambridge as well. There aren't very many medical schools, I don't think, who would be as able to help me switch placements around to enable me to get to regattas, and still make sure that I could fulfil all of the requirements and pass the exams properly, in the way that they did."

Set to start her career as a doctor on 7 August, she might need to delay that, she says as the Closing Ceremony in Paris is on Sunday 11 August.

Both have also been working alongside Dr Ann Redgrave exploring women's health in sport. One of the first studies, says Craig, who is also a personal trainer, is to basically look at hormones in women. "Nobody's just sat down and been like, what is normal for female athletes? And then go from there."

Imogen is also particularly passionate about the environment, unsurprising given their everyday playground.

So the pair followed outside interests, although they did row together at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in mid-August, just weeks after the disappointment in Tokyo, which proved a balm for the soul.

"Actually, I think that was like probably one of the highlights of the summer," says Craig. "Just in terms of [the fact] you got to race in front of a home crowd, and people didn't really care that we didn't have a medal. They were just like, 'Oh my God, that was fantastic, what a close result. Amazing to watch'. And were just really happy that we were there and competing and being part of a slightly more grassroots competition. I think for us, it felt like a bit of closure."

They didn't row together in a double until May 2022.

Road to Paris for Imogen Grant and Emily Craig

Their route to recovery on the mental health side was very much a team effort, with resources at British Rowing available at every turn.

"I guess I've used a lot more of the mental health supports," says Craig. "That's certainly something I have taken advantage of and have definitely been hugely supported in terms of finding what's right for me, what works for me.

"And then also the physios and all the other support staff, even just like the conversations you have around it... I think that's definitely helped us kind of come back from the last Olympiad and how this is like a very new Olympiad, like a new chapter."

"We have a really close relationship with our coach, Darren Whiter," says Grant of the Olympic High Performance Coach for the Women's Squad who was nominated Coach of the Year at the same event in which his charges won their award. "He was absolutely integral to forming us as a double in 2019, and he's coached us ever since.

"So I think he's probably the person within British Rowing who's done the most to help us process that and move on from that as well, always framing our racing now as part of a whole, rather than trying to forget the Tokyo Olympics or make it all about the Tokyo Olympics."

Whiter's groan-inducing 'dad jokes' come as part of that same package, however. One favourite, say the pair, is when it rains. "Dave will say," – both look at each other and say in unison – 'Make sure you've put your sunscreen on".

"That's a classic," they smile, knowing there will be plenty more where that came from on the road to Paris.

They've been through worse.