Team GB rower Lola Anderson was overcome with emotion as she remembered how her late father cherished a diary entry she made after securing gold in the women's quad sculls .
Anderson, together with her crewmates Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry, and Georgie Brayshaw, clinched a nail-biting victory, narrowly defeating the Dutch team in a compelling photo finish on Wednesday. The win brought Team GB their sixth gold at the Paris Games and marked their first rowing event win since the Rio 2016 Olympics.
For Anderson, this victory was the realization of a dream she had penned in her diary a dozen years prior. At the age of 14, inspired by Helen Glover and Heather Stanning's victory in the Coxless pair at the London 2012 Olympics, Anderson wrote down her ultimate aspiration.
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In her diary, she wrote: "My name is Lola Anderson, and I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics in rowing and, if possible, win a gold for GB." Feeling sheepish about her youthful ambition, she later ripped the page from her diary and discarded it. However, seven years on, her father, Don, presented the note back to her, having retrieved it from the trash and safeguarded it in a safety deposit box."
Don Anderson, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, gave the note back to his daughter while he was hospitalized in 2019, wanting her to have it. He passed away two months later, and following her gold medal win in Paris, Anderson honored her father's memory and the role he played in her journey.
"We spent ages working towards this and as a boat we're always very process-driven, we're always looking to what comes next but when you're getting towards the end of a cycle like this, and it doesn't get bigger than this," she shared with BBC Sport.
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"It's really quite overwhelming to experience this, but really grateful. I'd forgotten about it [the diary entry] obviously. But a couple of years ago, my dad reminded me of it and I know that he would be so, so proud and I'm thinking a lot about him right now. It's really lovely."
Anderson and her team were able to celebrate a famous win despite the Netherlands taking an early lead in the race. But Team GB fought back, passing Germany and then Ukraine. With 500m to go, though, the Netherlands still held the lead, with Team GB struggling to get a foothold. But from nowhere, the British crew pushed hard to overtake the Netherlands, crossing the line just 0.15 ahead of their rivals.
The result went down to a photo finish, with close-ups showing that Team GB had indeed pipped their rivals. Princess Anne presented them with their medals, and Scott was also left overwhelmed by the win.
"It's been a long time in the making and I still can't quite believe it. I don't know if I'm emotional yet but that will come. I think we were so process-driven today and the immensity of what this is, it hasn't caught up with me," she expressed.
"The crew today were amazing. We kept it so cool to the end. We had the confidence, we've done so many hard miles in training and for anyone out there just go for it. If you think you can you might just do it one day, and that's the really cool thing about the Olympics."
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