Philly rowing duo looks to lead U.S. to a long-sought Olympic medal in the men’s four-boat

PRINCETON, N.J. — If you ever scrolled through Justin Best’s Instagram page, you may have shared a few chuckles.

That’s because the former Drexel standout and Kennett Square native likes to keep his social media page light and fun. As a Unionville high schooler, Best noticed how active European rowers were represented on the platform, and yearned for the same for the United States national team rowers he admired at the time.

Now, he can give young rowers who have Olympic aspirations an insight on what it takes to make it to this stage, as he embarks on his second straight Games. And posting memes while having fun along the way is important for the 26-year-old.

“I think it’s good because it’s a shared collective, everyone has these experiences, and that’s what’s funny about it — we all go through the same 2,000-meter race and it’s just fun to poke fun at,” Best told The Inquirer at U.S. Rowing’s media day in June. “Because if you can’t poke fun at [rowing], you’re taking it a little too seriously, and the moment that you take it too seriously and it snowballs into ‘this is life or death’ is the moment when the fun gets sapped out of it.”

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Joining Best in the men’s four-man boat will be Nick Mead, a Strafford native and Episcopal Academy graduate, also in his second Games. The pair was on the eight-man boat together last Olympics that featured plenty of Philadelphia flavor. But missing out on a podium finish three years ago in Tokyo have Mead and Best ready to put that behind them as they look to win gold in the coxless four boat.

In fact, it’s been 64 years since the United States men’s rowing team took home a gold medal in the event. The Americans last medaled in the four-man boat at the London Olympics in 2012.

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The pair will team up with Michael Grady and Liam Corrigan to form this year’s U.S. coxless four in Paris when rowing events begin on Saturday.

“I think the rich history behind it is something that fuels my passion for it, and other rowing fanatics’ passion,” Best said. “I’m fortunately joined in the boat with two other guys from Pennsylvania and then one guy from Connecticut. And it really takes a village from all over the U.S. to put forward its best performance.”

“I think all of us returning for this Olympics had the experience of not winning and not medaling and that has bonded us together in a shared commitment to do as much as possible to be in a better place going into Paris,” added Mead, a Princeton grad training in familiar surroundings.

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They’ve been rowing together for nearly a year. The crew won the silver medal at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in September, finishing 2.02 seconds behind Great Britain, then won gold at the World Rowing Cup II in May, beating out Great Britain and Australia, the reigning Olympic Champion that failed to medal at all in Lucerne, Switzerland.

All four were around for the last Olympics. But for Best and Mead, having a familiar face in the boat after competing against each other growing up made the transition from the eight boat to four more comfortable.

“A huge part of our success as a crew is just that we’ve spent so much time in this lineup and together over the past five or six years,” added the 29-year-old Mead, who was named U.S. Rowing’s 2023 Male Athlete of the Year. “I think other countries often prioritize time in the lineup. And in the past the United States sort of came to each world championships, each Olympics with totally new guys, new lineup. … There aren’t any questions about what we’re going to do or how we’re going to approach it. We’ve done it so many times that you just kind of shut your brain off and go and things just kind of lock in together in a fluid rhythm.”

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Best added: “It’s cool seeing [Nick’s] progression from Episcopal to Princeton to the national team and kind of following along and ended up being in a boat [with him]. He’s a great guy. He’s a workhorse, he’s an all-around a teammate that you want to have no matter what. And it’s been really special. Having that Philly connection to keeping the continuity and representing Philly on the biggest stage is pretty cool.”

Just like Mead and Best, former Penn rower Regina Salmons was on the women’s eight boat that placed fourth in the last Olympics. The U.S. boat finished just over a minute behind China, missing out on a podium finish in an event they had dominated the previous three Games when they won gold in three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012, 2016). It was the first time the women’s boat hadn’t medaled since the 2000 Games.

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The women’s boat will feature some new faces, but Salmons remains the constant. The last Olympics provided challenges across the board: rowers weren’t allowed to row in big boats until January of 2021, roughly six months before the Olympics began because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But this year’s eight boat group’s success in the events leading up to these Games gives Salmons optimism.

“[Within] this last year at the World Championships in the women’s eight, we beat Australia for silver by two tenths of a second, so keeping that in the back of your head, every single practice between the nine of us, every little thing can add up to two tenths of a second by the final big race,” Salmons said. “I think about that a lot because these Olympic races are won by hundreds and tenths of seconds. And same with collegiate races, too. Everybody is so incredibly fast, that it’s incredibly tight margins that separates fourth, from third, from second, from gold.”

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Salmons, who raced at Penn from 2014-2018, was a team captain as a senior and says racing for the Quakers “instilled the love of rowing in me.” Though she’s not from the Philly area — she hails from Methuen, Mass. — she’s felt the love of Philly’s tight, yet welcoming rowing community.

“I think being in a place that really celebrated rowing and understood that community aspect of it and how everyone is interconnected. … that’s really special and a lot of those friendships I still carry to this day,” Salmons added. “People that I’ve rode with on the Schuylkill send me so many notes of congratulations and love and support.

“It’s just been an absolute treat — rowing at Penn was incredible.”

She’ll be joined by returners to the boat: Meghan Musnicki, Olivia Coffey, and Charlotte Buck; newcomer Cristina Castagna; Claire Collins and Madeleine Wanamaker, who were in the four boat last Olympics; Molly Bruggeman, who served as an alternate at the Tokyo Olympics; and Margaret Hedeman.

Evan Olson was a teenager when his mom bought the “Boys in the Boat” book for him. After finishing the book, based on the 1936 Olympic team gold medal team made up of Washington’s eight-man rowing team, Olson was hooked on the sport. The 26 year-old, who’s 6-foot-6, resonated with one of its main characters, Joe Rantz.

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In fact, Olson became a Husky himself, attending Washington from 2016-2019, just two years after beginning to compete in the sport. He was a part of a national championship-winning team every season at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, including back-to-back titles on the Third Varsity team. But upon graduating, he stepped away from rowing for three years, later picking the sport back up in England while pursuing his masters at Oxford Brookes University.

Before embarking on his first Olympic team this year on the eight-man boat hoping to pick up its first gold medal since 2004, Olson joined Penn AC’s rowing club, a U.S. rowing high-performance club led by Bill Manning, who had spent many summers coaching rowers for the U.S. National Team. Though he’s originally from the West Coast, Olson said, “Bill really just did this amazing job of explaining how everything works and explaining the process and he really just wanted to help me out.”

Olson was nursing a herniated disk in June that kept him from practicing, but was optimistic that he would return in time for the Paris Olympics. He’ll be led by his college coach, Michael Callahan, with three other former Washington rowers on the eight boat: coxswain Rielly Milne, stroke Pieter Quinton, and Chris Carlson.

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“The reason we chose Michael Callahan is because he’s a visionary,” Olson said. “Coaching, I think on the national team and I think on the Olympic team, is not just about technique. It’s not just about holding your hands at a certain height or squaring and feathering your blade a certain way. It’s not just about the way that you row. It’s also about like the emotional state and the psyche of the athletes and the psyche of the boat.

“I think Michael Callahan does an amazing job of getting us to believe in ourselves and getting us to believe in each other and getting us to trust the process and knowing that there is a plan and that if we stick to the plan, we are going to win.”