TEAM GB rowing champion Lola Anderson broke down in tears after winning gold in the women’s quadruple sculls.
It came as she remembered a note her father had given her before he died of cancer.
British stars Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgina Brayshaw bagged Team GB’s sixth gold medal of the Paris games by just 0.15 seconds as they edged out silver medallists the Netherlands.
It came just 15 minutes after Alex Yee took top spot in the men’s triathlon for GB’s fifth gold medal in his own thrilling last-gasp dash to the line.
Following the race, Anderson broke down in tears as she recalled a note her father, Don, had given her which she had originally wrote in as a 14-year-old after seeing Helen Glover win gold at London 2012.
Months before his death in 2019, Don had asked her to fetch his safety deposit box, where he still had an old diary entry of hers stating her dream of becoming an Olympic rowing champion.
A tearful Anderson told the BBC: “It feels like it’s been ages working towards this.
“We’re always very process driven and looking to what comes next but when you get to the end of a cycle like this and it doesn’t get bigger than this it’s really quite overwhelming to experience this but be really grateful.”
Asked about the note, she added: “[It was] 13 years ago, I’d forgotten about it obviously. A couple years ago my dad reminded me.
“I know he’d be so so proud. I’m just thinking a lot about him right now, it’s really lovely.”
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Watching Helen Glover take gold at London 2012, the 14-year-old Anderson wrote herself a promise note in her diary.
And as she revealed when speaking to The Guardian ahead of the Olympics, the note read: “My name is Lola Anderson and I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics and represent Team GB in rowing and, if possible, win a gold medal.”
The 26-year-old admitted she was a little “embarrassed” by the note before ripping it out of her diary and throwing it in the bin.
She recalled: “Teenage girls don’t necessarily have the most belief in ourselves and I got very embarrassed.
“I kinda thought ‘That was a really cocky, arrogant thing to have written’.
“Back then, on a good day I wasn’t capsizing. I ripped the page out and threw it in the bin.”
But after achieving her dream, the note handed her by her father, who originally got her into rowing, served as a emotional reminder of how far she has come.
Their win came shortly after the men’s quadruple sculls team Tom Barras, Callum Dixon, Matthew Hayward and Graeme Thomas missed out on a medal as they finished fourth.
Overall, it also means Great Britain have now won 71 Olympic medals in rowing, including 32 gold medals – the second most behind USA and Germany.
Team GB are tipped to add more rowing medals to their collection in later rowing events.
It already marks an improvement from Tokyo when GB failed to land a gold.
Team GB have also won bronze medals in the women’s triathlon and women’s synchronisation 10 metres platform.
