PARIS, FRANCE/OLD LYME– Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) graduate Liam Corrigan won a gold medal in the Mens’ Four at the Paris Olympics in a remarkable time of 5:49:03. This was the U.S. men’s first rowing gold medal of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The Team USA boat led from the 500-meter mark of the race held at at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium and secured the gold for the USA in this event for the first time in 60 years.
The USA boat ultimately won by just 0.85 seconds over New Zealand, who came to within half a second of the US boat with 500 meters to go. The Kiwis took the silver medal in a time of 5:49:88 and Great Britain, the bronze, in 5:52:42.
The men’s four comprises Liam Corrigan (Old Lyme, Conn./Harvard University/California Rowing Club)—who takes the stroke position, Michael Grady (Pittsburgh, Pa./Cornell University/California Rowing Club), Justin Best (Kennett Square, Pa./Drexel University/California Rowing Club), and Nick Mead (Strafford, Pa./Princeton University/New York Athletic Club.)
Corrigan’s parents Brian Corrigan and Joan Rivington of Lyme are there in Paris to watch their son in his team’s moment of glory.
Corrigan was referred to as, “The man of the moment,” throughout the commentary.
Corrigan graduated from LOLHS in 2015 and went on to Harvard University, where he was ultimately captain on the men’s rowing team.
After the race, Grady said, “We definitely executed really well,” adding, “I mean, we knew we had a good start. We knew we had a good base middle. We knew we have a good lift. We felt them [New Zealand] the entire time. I mean, hats off to them. They’re really great competitors, and they raced it really hard.”
He noted, “You know, they even walked back into us (at about) 600 (meters). I was pretty confident that we had the last little bit of speed. We had a full set of moves to go through to sprint to the line. So yeah, executed really well. Really happy with that performance obviously.”
The four, which has been together since last season, won silver at the world championships last year and gold at the world cup race in Lucerne earlier this year. That experience together, as well as their years of rowing as teammates, proved pivotal in their success on Thursday.
Corrigan pointed out, “Like to really drive that home, Grady and I were in the 2014 junior eight that came second to last in Hamburg, Germany,” noting, “There’s been a lot of strokes since then. Michael and Justin rowed together (at the under 23 level), and all of us, to some degree, rowed against each other in college and with each other in college and then for the last five years since 2019 in different boats – pairs with each other, against each other.”
He emphasized, “There’s so much trust that’s been developed in that amount of time. You feel like one unit; it doesn’t feel like four people. It feels like one boat. That sounds so cliche, but that’s how I really feel about it.”
The U.S. finished fifth in the Men’s Four in Tokyo and last won a medal in the event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, taking home a bronze.
“I don’t think special does it enough justice because of the amount of meters, hours, days with each other away from our loved ones,” Best said. “You know the funerals you have to miss, the weddings. You have to miss social events. It’s all encompassing what it takes to get to this moment.”
He explained, “We have a group of four guys that love each other, and like I said, special can’t describe it because it really is just like that ethereal bond that I think we’ve created over the last few years. Now, we have a physical reminder of everything that we put in, and we’ll have this for the rest of our lives.”
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM USA—AND ESPECIALLY OLD LYME NATIVE LIAM CORRIGAN—ON THEIR SUPERB WIN!
Editor’s Note: This story includes information from US Rowing, which is used with their permission.
