Canadian rowers lament 'disastrous' result at 2024 Olympics in heart-wrenching post-race interview: 'A lot of anger'

It'll be hard to find a more emotional, heart-wrenching post-event speech than the one a pair of Canadian rowers gave following a crushing defeat on the water.

The duo of Jill Moffatt and Jenny Casson, competing in lightweight double sculls on Wednesday, finished fifth in their semifinal — meaning they didn't qualify for the final and won't even have a chance to race for a medal. The Canadian pair clearly took their underwhelming result to heart, as the pain, anger, disappointment and heartbreak both women felt was obvious when they spoke in front of cameras immediately following the race.

“A lot of anger, I’m very angry,” Casson told the CBC after the race. “It’s the same feeling I had in Tokyo, so that’s pretty upsetting. There were a lot of people who went out of their way to support us here and we feel like we’ve let them down so it’s pretty hard.

“For all of those of you who believed in us the whole time, thank you. It means more than that result. I’m having [a] hard time right now trying not to scream because we obviously wanted it more, not just [for] ourselves,” she added.

Moffat, who hails from Newcastle, Ont., detailed her disappointment with how things ended for the team — made all-the-more painful by the fact the duo had podium aspirations heading into Tokyo.

“I think this time was a lot different because we came in with the hope of chasing a medal,” Moffatt said. “I think it’s kind of tough, getting fourth last year was such a big result for us and so all year we trained with the belief that we could get on the podium.

“To see it unfold in a pretty disastrous way, it feels a little bit like whiplash and like how Tokyo felt. So it’s been really tough,” added Moffat, referring to the the 2023 World Rowing Championships when the Canadian side just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish.

Moffat and Casson have always worn their hearts on their sleeve and these Olympics were par for the course for the fiery duo.

Since that 12th-place finish in women's lightweight double sculls three years ago at the Tokyo Games, the team switched coaches and tried to really lean into what they feel is a competitive advantage: their emotions and unrelenting drive.

"When they're sitting at the start line, they're like feral animals, ready to just rip somebody's throat out," their coach, Jeremy Ivey, told the CBC just before the Paris Game began.

"I think, a lot of times people have said 'If you're worried, if you're nervous, that's a bad place to be,'" he added. "Well you know what? You're at the Olympics, you're at the world championships, you're on the biggest stage. You're going to have a lot of adrenalin; you're going to want to go for it. So [we're] running toward those feelings, weaponizing those things."

It's hard to know what the future has in store for the pair, but the 31-year-old Moffat told the Peterborough Examiner that — after nine years of rowing and two Olympic appearances — she would be retiring from the sport after Paris.