Tokyo heartbreak fuels Paris dream for Grant & Craig

By Tom Williams, James Dunn and Paul Grunill

"When we crossed the line and I saw 4: GBR pop up and I knew we hadn’t got a medal, it was just the strangest feeling, it almost felt like nothing, like ‘oh I guess that’s over then.’"

It was one of the most heartbreaking moments for Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when rower Imogen Grant, and partner Emily Craig, finished just 0.01 seconds outside the medals in the women's lightweight double sculls.

Indeed, such was the closeness of the finish that they were only 0.10 behind winners Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini.

Now, though, they are heading to Paris for the 2024 Games as firm favourites, with double World and European titles among a string of successes achieved over the last couple of years.

"I think we’ve got 10 regattas under our belt unbeaten at this point and that’s not really the kind of winning streak that you can ever expect to have," 28-year-old Grant said.

"A couple of World Championship golds, a couple of European golds and a couple of world best times, when you rattle it off like that, it’s crazy."

Her success is all the more remarkable as she has pursued her sporting ambition while completing a medical degree at Cambridge University which she admits has taken "about a decade".

"We’re in the last stretch before the lead-up into the Olympics itself so we’ve got some time to build back some base endurance, things like that, but that means the mileage has gone back up, so everyone is quite tired at the moment," Grant added.

"It’s crazy how quickly things have come around, it’s only been three years since Tokyo rather than the usual four and this year especially, it feels like we are barrelling towards it at breakneck speed."

From the Games to hospital wards

Should her dream of Olympic gold come to fruition, Grant will not have long to celebrate as she is due to start her first medical job three days later.

"As soon as the Olympics is finished, I’m going to be starting my foundation years in the Oxfordshire Deanery," she said.

"It’s my first foundation year... you do a few different placements in medical wards, in the community and some surgical rotations as well. I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit terrified but ultimately this is something I’ve been working towards for many years."

Craig, from Mark Cross in East Sussex, has a degree in Japanese art, so winning a gold medal three years ago, had it happened, would have been perfect synchronicity.

“Tokyo was going to be a fantastic fairytale in that we would win a gold medal in the country whose art I love but it turns out fairytales don’t happen. There’s a lot of art in Paris though," Craig said.

Craig initially contemplated giving up the sport following the Tokyo Games.

"It took until February the next year until I was sure I wanted to come back and give it another go," she explained.

"I think for both of us going away, finding value in ourselves, away from sport, was quite important to come back feeling refreshed and attack it with a new attitude.”

'I wanted to be a diver like Tom Daley'

Despite being born and growing up in Cambridge, Grant never set foot in a boat until university - and her sporting dreams were originally inspired by another GB Olympian - diver Tom Daley.

They were team-mates three years ago and will be again in Paris after he returned to the diving board after two years away from the sport.

"I did a variety of different sports when I was growing up, quite a lot of swimming and gymnastics when I was really young, a bit of diving, I used to want to follow in Tom Daley’s footsteps and be a diver at the Olympics," she said.

"But by the time I got to sixth form, the academics had taken over, I didn’t feel I could do both and so when I arrived at uni I was probably the least fit I’d ever been and rowing really turned that around for me."

You would assume that missing out so narrowly on a medal in Tokyo must have been difficult to come to terms with - but looking back, Grant does not see it in that way, although she and Craig have used it to drive them forward.

"In some ways it wasn’t something to get over because we were really proud of how we raced, and to pin your worth on something that is such a small margin is kind of ridiculous," Grant added.

"It’s one of the crazy things about sport that it only matters because you choose to make it matter and when it’s over, it’s over.

"I could have chosen to go back to my normal life and forget about it completely and almost nobody would have known that it had been part of my history or you can choose to take that moment and learn from it and carry it with you.

"We were really proud of that race but it definitely has informed this Olympiad. We both came back with a bit of a point to prove and a very clear mission and it’s been a really fun set of years of racing."