A Silver Medal Story

Senior Caryn Davies was a member of the 2003 NCAA Champion Radcliffe crew. Last year, she left Harvard to train for the Olympics. She rowed in the US women’s eight that won the 2002 World Championship, and she was selected as a member of the women’s eight to compete in the Athens Olympics this summer.

Prior to their arrival in Greece, the crew spent ten days in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, training. The tiny town was turned upside down—or, more accurately, turned itself upside down—accommodating the team. In addition to providing a police motorcade that sped through red lights to and from the practice course, men with large guns were stationed every 100 meters or so along the course. The team stayed in a hotel rumored to be run by the mafia—a rumor made very believeable by the fact that in the window of every floor was a man with a large gun.

In the crew’s opening heat in Greece, the eight set the world record for their event, covering the two kilometers in 5.56.55. But Romania edged out the Americans in the final by half a length, and Davies has returned to Cambridge, silver medal in tow, to complete her senior year.

J. Patrick Coyne: Did you come across any famous athletes?

Caryn Davies: There were these three guys walking, and I could tell they were American because they were wearing the same thing I was. So I was like “Oh hey guys, you’re American, what do you do?” and they were like “Oh we’re swimmers.” “Cool, I’m a rower. So did you, you know, win any medals?” And they all looked uncomfortable to talk about it, and they were all looking at each other like “Uh, um,” and I was like “So!” and they were like, “Between us, we have six gold, five bronzes and about four silvers.” And I was like “Yeah. I’ve got one silver.” I forget their names. I know it wasn’t Michael Phelps. That’s what everyone wants to know, “Did you meet Michael Phelps?” No. I don’t think I met anyone really famous.

JPC: What was it like to break the world record?

CD: We actually had no idea we had set the world record until one of the guys interviewing us right after the race was like, “So how does it feel to set the world record?” One of my teammates accidentally swore and was like “Holy shit! We set the world record?” and we were like “Holy shit! She just swore on national TV.”…Someone made the comment “Well yeah, it was good a thing we set the world record, because if we hadn’t set the world record, we would have come in third.” A lot of it was the really strong tailwind. I actually think our heat was our best race. We were almost a little more, not hungry, but we definitely just were out of it (the start). In the final we were almost a little more conservative off the start, because we didn’t want to waste our energy. But it turns out maybe it would have been better to do what we had in the heat and just get out early and hang on by the thread of our teeth.

JPC: Were you happy with your finals race?

CD: Intellectually, yes. We had a great race, I don’t think we made any mistakes really. We raced our hardest, we gave a good fight to the Romanians, and they were just better on that day. But at the same time I think there’s always going to be that emotional bit of “Shit—we beat them before. Why didn’t we beat them again?” So, I’m not unhappy with the silver, but I think there will always be that little bit of “I want to win gold.” I was planning to keep rowing to 2008 anyway, but I think in a way, maybe it’s almost better because there’s still little bit farther to go.

JPC: So you’re planning to definitely come back in 2008?

CD: As of now, yeah.

JPC: Where do you keep your medal?

CD: Want to see it? (She pulls medal out). I keep it in my purse.

JPC: You really always have it?

CD: Uh-huh. Because people always ask to see it. I mean, eventually I’ll stop carrying it around and put it on my shelf or something. It’s really handy sometimes, like if you can’t get into a club or something…It’s been through quite a bit—it’s been dropped a few times, spilled beer on it—I’m actually not even sure if this is my medal, because before I got it engraved, I was standing there talking to this guy who was in the Dutch men’s eight who also won silver [to the US’s gold]. And we were kind of like comparing our medals, and—it does have the event on it, but it’s in Greek, so I can’t read it, and I was a little drunk at the time, so I just grabbed his medal and I was switching them around (she motions as if she were playing two medal monte) and mixed them up, and he was like “Mine’s that one,” and he seemed pretty sure, so I trusted him, but for all I know I could have a men’s silver medal.

JPC: Did you wear your medal around Athens?

CD: I did wear it out one night, but I tucked it in my shirt. But then after that I just put it in my pocket. People around here too ask me, “Why don’t you wear it? I’d have a big shirt with big arrows saying, ‘Hey look at this!’’’ But then you kind of just get known as the girl that wears the medal around.

JPC: How did you celebrate your silver?

CD: How did I celebrate? How would you celebrate? I got really drunk!

JPC: Was it a five day celebration?

CD: I was planning to go all week, with a vengeance, but I did a pretty good job of taking care of myself…. I did get many what I call UPIs, unidentified party injuries. I came home with these bruises…The coolest thing ever were the parties thrown by Sports Illustrated. They were at the biggest club in Athens, right on the beach, huge. There were like five bars and a swimming pool, which was interesting because drunk people and a swimming pool is not a good combination. Completely open bar, and it was one of those very exclusive parties were you either had to be an athlete or know someone who knew someone who was really important. It was mostly Americans, Canadians, and Australians, all people between the age of 20 and 35, all amazingly fit, and I was just like “Wow.” I had to leave early, though, because I cut my foot. I was dancing around and my feet were slipping around, so I walk off the dance floor and my feet were covered in blood. And I was like “That’s bad. I can’t feel anything.” So I went to the bathroom to clean it up, and one of my teammates was in there and she was like, “Oh my God! You need to go to the hospital and get stitches right now.” And I was like “Oh, I’ll be fine. Let me dance till the party’s over then I’ll get stitches.” And she did the “I am overriding anything you say because you are too drunk to make your own decisions.” She hailed a cab and put me in it and was like “See ya, I’m going back to the party.”

JPC: Any other escapades in the Olympic Village?

CD: My friend and I decided that we were going to try to get a dance party started in the dining hall. So we went and talked to a few of the people working there and were like, “Do you think you could crank up the music and turn down the lights?” They couldn’t turn down the lights, but they did turn up the music, but they didn’t have the kind of music we were talking about. It was just like the Greek folk music. It turned out being kind of cool because a lot of the dining hall staff started doing Greek folk dance and holding hands, so a bunch of athletes were standing in a circle around them clapping. It kind of turned into a dance party anyways, just not the kind that I was interested in starting.

JPC: How did you find the Greek people?

CD: They were very excited about the Olympics, very welcoming. One of my favorite memories was when I went into town to do some shopping. I was stopped every two minutes by someone who wanted to ask me about being an athlete and how much they were excited to have the Olympics here and see my medal if I mentioned I had one. It was one of the only times you’ll be so welcome and people will be so friendly all the time. You’re not just an anonymous person walking around—you’re an athlete.

JPC: What was your favorite part of the Olympics?

CD: Meeting other athletes, and mostly other rowers...Some of my teammates would get mad at me because they would be looking for me and I’d be off talking to people. That’s the main reason why I row, because I just really like to meet other people, and it gives you such an opportunity to go places and see things and meet people.

JPC: Least favorite part?

CD: The transportation was not good. They did a good job with what they had, but it took so long to get places. That was definitely the most annoying part for me. I didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to do and get to all the places I wanted to go, because of time constraints, mostly based on transportation.

JPC: How were the Closing Ceremonies? (Davies and her teammates couldn’t make the Opening Ceremonies because their first race was too close to the event).

CD: We couldn’t hear when they were making the speeches, because the acoustics were not very good, maybe just where we were, so we couldn’t really hear what was going on, so we were like “La, La, La,” not really paying attention to what was going on. Plus a lot of people had been partying and drinking that entire week, so people were just standing there sweating like “I’m so tired. I’m still hung over.”

They made this big announcement like: “Do not light your little thing up until we tell you to.” Because it was supposed to be like, “A child bringing light to the world, and it spreads to everybody,” but half the people weren’t listening. The athletes were pretty good at the beginning. None of us had our lights on.

But then once we started looking at the crowd and the fans and it was like, “Hey they have their lights on!” so we all started to turn our lights on, and I think we completely ruined the effect.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.