After a gut-wrenching photo finish at the Tokyo Games that left the pair without a medal, Imogen Grant and Emily Craig both stepped away from rowing and, in turn, stepped into medal contention for the Paris Games. Their interests in medicine, the environment, art, and language turned out to be advantageous to their performance on the water. The now-Olympic champions in the lightweight double sculls prove that women athletes don’t have to fit into just one box, and there is power in finding our passions outside of sport.
Finding Value Outside of the Boat
“When three, Netherlands, came up, yeah, I almost felt nothing,” Grant said about the duo’s fourth-place Tokyo finish in an article on the Paris 2024 website. Following the devastation of being just one hundredth of a second from a medal, Grant and Craig took a break from each other and from the sport. Craig, who has a postgraduate degree in Asian art, accepted a job at an auction house after Tokyo. Having learned Japanese for her degree, she takes interest in language as well.
Grant went back to the University of Cambridge to finish her medical degree, and she will start as a foundation doctor just two days after the 2024 closing ceremony. As someone who spends a lot of time on the water, Grant is also an advocate for sustainability and the health of our rivers. Despite pressure from people to choose one interest and stick with it, Grant told Surfers Against Sewage, “I know that I’m somebody who thrives off of having lots of eggs in different baskets.”
Advocating for Women in a “Manly” Sport
Women athletes first had the opportunity to row in the Olympics at the 1976 Games in Montreal, but until Rio 2016, there were eight men’s rowing events and only six women’s events. This means that women rowers are often subject to misogynistic, even sexist, remarks. And unfortunately, onlookers haven’t stopped expressing their opinions on Grant and Craig. The rowers told The Telegraph that despite being Olympic-level athletes, they have received unsolicited coaching from men, and they “avoid public gyms like the plague.”
“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.”
Historically, sports requiring the physique that rowing does have been considered “manly,” and rowing is still largely based on a male model. Craig pointed out in the Paris 2024 article that “nobody’s just sat down and been like, what’s normal for [women] athletes?” Grant and Craig are working to change that by pursuing studies that, for example, look at hormones in women athletes.
Even though rowing is quite popular in Great Britain, in general, it’s not necessarily a popular choice for women. Sadly, the gender norms and male focus are intimidating for many girls and women. But just as Grant and Craig are not scared of having a broad range of interests outside of sport, they do not shy away from setting an example of finding identity inside a sport that’s not known as “feminine.”
Resilience After Heartbreak
Grant and Craig started as a double in 2019 and have been teammates ever since. Competing in a rowing event with just two athletes in the boat, the lightweight double sculls certainly require a strong bond and sense of trust between the athletes. “Emily is the toughest, most incredible person I’ve had the pleasure to row with…She’s been there every single step of the way,” Grant told BBC after the gold-medal performance.
The journey was not all smooth sailing – or rowing – and what it meant for the pair to work together was clear, as they tearfully embraced upon exiting the boat after winning gold. Using the heartbreak on Tokyo Bay as motivation, Grant and Craig came back to set a world best time of 6:40.47, win back-to-back World Championships, and go undefeated in their 13 races leading up to the Olympic final. “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,” Craig told the BBC. It turns out that this new attitude is golden.
After such disappointment in 2021, when the expectation was to return to the boat and get to work, Grant and Craig found the resilience they needed by stepping away. These two are not just Olympic champions: They’re a doctor and an environmental activist, an art enthusiast and a multi-linguist, too. And they remind us that we should always take pride in all of our identities.
