Canada returns as gold medal winners at Tokyo 2020. Team USA 5th

Canada's women's eight crew celebrates after winning the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

It was a victory for Canada who found its pace to be golden at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The crew from the true north had every stroke heavy enough to pull them well ahead and win the gold medal in the women’s eights at the Tokyo Seaforest Waterway. New Zealand and China finished for silver and bronze respectively. It was Canada’s first gold medal since the 1992 games in Barcelona. The United States fell short after a good start but struggled to keep up with the leaders. 

Team USA’s women’s eight crews competed in the final, hoping to repeat with two rowers from Rio on the team. The women came into the final as the heavy favorite and would take on Australia, Romania, and New Zealand as their major competitors. 

The women’s final took place first with Team USA getting a short jump out of the blocks. They suddenly found themselves trailing with the Canadians taking the lead. at the 500 meter mark, it was Canada and Australia with New Zealand behind them and the US in fifth. By the halfway mark, the Canadians had a bigger lead with the run the same for everyone else. The US was trying to get level with New Zealand but the task was heavy on them. 

Canada had nearly five seats at the 1500 meter mark with New Zealand in second and China and the US tied for third. All the crews gave it everything they had left in the final 500 and when they came to the line, it was Canada with two seats on New Zealand and China with three seats to keep the United States off the podium.