PARIS, FRANCE/OLD LYME—The U.S. men’s four, with Old Lymes’ Liam Corrigan in the stroke seat, won its heat to advance directly to Thursday’s final, at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Corrigan graduated from Lyme-Old Lyme High School in 2015 and then went on to attend Harvard University, where he was ultimately captain on the men’s rowing team.
Racing in the second of two heats, the men’s four of Liam Corrigan (Old Lyme, Conn./Harvard University/California Rowing Club), 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) took the lead off the opening strokes and held nearly a one-second advantage over Australia 500 meters into the race.
The U.S. continued to power away from the field during the middle 1,000 meters, taking an open-water lead over the Aussie crew as the boats entered the final sprint. The American boat cruised to the finish, winning by just under a length in a 6:04.95. Australia finished second, claiming the other spot in the final in a 6:06.84.
“It felt solid,” Best said. “It was exciting. We’ve been building up a lot of excitement to get out there and race again. We had a lot of good momentum coming from World Cup II, and we all kind of knew, ‘Let’s get back to the work. There’s still the Olympics to get ready for.’ I think over the last few weeks we were at a training camp in Italy, and we were really excited to let it rip (down) the course. Coming through the last 250 (meters), that was incredible hearing all the audience. That was a first time for me to hear something that loud doing the sport I love.”
“One unique thing about this lineup and this crew is we’ve been together so long relative to other American crews in the past,” Mead said. “We have a ton of confidence in each other. We’ve been rowing together for about a year and training together for five or six years, so it’s a huge advantage when we come to these races knowing I don’t have to worry about what the guys in front of me are going to do. I know that they are going to execute the plan like we’ve talked about and that brings a relaxation and freedom to the race that in the past we’ve not had.”
“It was an exciting day, and Liam and the boat felt good. They know this is just the first step and will rest and prepare prior to the finals”, said Brian and Joan Corrigan of Lyme, Conn.
Team New Zealand won Heat 1 with a time of 6:03:06 They will join Team USA, Team Australia and Team Great Britain in the final. battling for the additional spots in the final via the repecharge are Team Netherlands, Team France and Team Italy.
The finals will be live on Thursday at 6:10 a.m. EST.
Go Liam! Go Team USA!
Editor’s Note: This story is adapted from US Rowing with their permission.