If our ravenous appetite for gold has taught us anything about the weight of Olympic expectation it’s that success in sport is binary. Degrees of success don’t exist here. There’s winning and there’s not winning. You’re either the best in the world at that thing you do or you’re someone who’s trying to be. It’s brutal but it’s true, it’s what makes winning so transcendent.
Yesterday at Eton Dorney, the site of three silvers and two bronzes for the green and golds, Australia’s K-4 men’s kayak team which includes four life savers (half of which are also plumbers) were the best in the world at that what they do.
Leading for the entirety of the race, Tate Smith, David Smith, Murray Stewart and Jake Clear gifted Australia its sixth gold medal of the games and its first at Eton Dorney, where so many before them had come just short.
Photo by Harry How for Getty Images Sport
