Team GB Win Silver in Women's Four Rowing at Paris 2024

Rebecca Shorten, with Helen Glover, Sam Redgrave, and Esme Booth, won a medal in Paris after Team GB won silver in the women's four-rowing event. They were the fastest in qualifying but missed out on gold, which the Netherlands claimed. In a role reversal of GB's success in the quadruple sculls on Wednesday, where Hannah Scott from Northern Ireland won gold, the Dutch pipped the British crew to the line by a margin of 0.19 seconds.

Team GB's women's four rowing team

Helen Glover had said she wanted to show what all mothers might be capable of. In her case, it was silver, denied gold by two-tenths of a second. Watched from the stands by her three children at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, she won a third Olympic medal 12 years after the first of two golds but came up just short in her quest to become the first British mother to win rowing gold.

She has been quick to praise the adaptability of her crewmates Esme Booth, Samantha Redgrave, and Rebecca Shorten in fitting around her life demands, as well as her coach James Harris. The women’s four had comfortably been the No. 1 crew in the world this year, winning World Cups and the European Championships.

Following the dramatic photo finish between the Dutch and GB crews in Monday’s quadruple sculls, it was the same two nations who led the way in the women’s four. There was nothing to separate the crews at the 1,000m mark of the race, as the Dutch held a narrow lead of 0.31 seconds. That margin barely changed as the bows of the boats swapped positions on several occasions on the run to the line. Ultimately, it was the Dutch who celebrated gold, while Great Britain had to settle for silver.

Helen Glover's Olympic experiences have all been contrasting. At London 2012, she and rowing partner Heather Stanning, who was also watching as a Team GB athlete ambassador, had not been household names before winning Team GB’s first gold of a home Games. Four years later, they were heavy favourites for gold in Rio. In Tokyo, Glover said it was simply a victory to make it onto the plane, having left behind one-year-old twins at home.