Charlottesville’s Shoop takes rowing gold

Beixiaoying Town, China — The United States won the gold medal in women’s eight rowing, finally knocking off Romania and another crew for a win in the sport’s signature event.
Erin Cafaro, Virginia and Covenant graduate Lindsay Shoop, Anna Goodale, Elle Logan, Anna Cummins, Susan Francia, Caroline Lind, Caryn Davies and coxswain Mary Whipple won on Sunday in 6 minutes, 5.34 seconds. They laughed and screamed as they crossed the finish line.
Femke Dekker, Marlies Smulders, Nienke Kingma, Roline Repelaer van Driel, Annemarieke van Rumpt, Helen Tanger, Sarah Siegelaar, Annemiek de Haan and coxswain Ester Workel of the Netherlands won silver in 6:07.22.
Romania was denied a fourth straight Olympic gold medal in the eight. The crew of Constanta Burcica, Viorica Susanu, Rodica Maria Serban, Eniko Barabas, Simona Dumitrita Musat, Ioana Cristina Papuc, Georgeta Andrunache, Doina Ignat and coxswain Elena Georgescu took bronze in 6:07.25.
Shoop, a Charlottesville native and two-time All-American in 2003 and 2004, rowed in the second seat in the crew. The U.S. stormed into the final race with impressive heat wins and dominated the final race from start to finish.
Three-time Olympic champion Romania was third at the 500m mark and moved into second at the 1500m mark, holding a three second lead over the Netherlands and a one second lead over Canada. But Romania couldn’t hold their lead in the final 500 meters and conceded silver to the Netherlands by just 0.03 seconds. Rowing for the Netherlands was Marlies Smulders, who rowed one year for Virginia in 2000.
Another former rower at Virginia, Melanie Kok, was a bronze medalist in the lightweight women’s double sculls for Canada. Kok and her teammate Tracy Cameron finished third with a time of 6:56.68. The Netherlands won the gold (6:54.74), while Finland took the silver (6:56.03).
Wyatt Allen, a 2001 Virginia graduate, also won a bronze medal with the United States men’s eight crew. The Americans had a time of 5:25.34, while Canada won gold (5:23.89) and Great Britain took silver (5:25.11).
In all, four rowers with Virginia ties earned medals at the 2008 Olympic Games.