On final opportunity, Sarasota rower Clark Dean qualifies for Paris Olympics in Men's Eight

SARASOTA – The name of the event told Clark Dean everything he needed to know: the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta.

Final, as in last. If the 24-year-old Sarasota rower was to have his ticket punched for a second Olympic Games, it would have to happen here, in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the second and last qualifying opportunity. Finish first, it’s on to Paris. Finish second, it’s on to Paris.

Finish anywhere else, it’s anywhere but Paris. For the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Dean earned a spot in the Men’s Four at the first qualifier, the World Championships, the summer before. In Switzerland, Dean rowed in the Men’s Eight, which meant eight American rowers with eight parts fear and desperation.

“Yeah, of course,” said Dean, whose boat finished fifth in Tokyo. “Everybody comes to this race with their backs up against the wall because you either get first or second and qualify, or you don’t and then you go home and you wait for four years. We had been going down the course fast, and we thought we could do it, we knew we could do it.

“But you never know. You have to do it. You can’t just show the speed. You have to show the speed on that day, next to the other guys, regardless of wind or whatever. There is always a little bit of nervousness, but I think we were all really confident going into it, knowing that we have a pretty special boat.”

Ultimately, any pre-race fear the team had proved unfounded. Dean’s boat finished the two kilometers in first, defeating Canada by more than three seconds. “A big sigh of relief,” he said. A spot in Paris secured, Dean participated this weekend in the second of three annual World Cups, this one, coincidentally, in Lucerne. Among the Men’s Eight competitors will be four crews which have already qualified for Paris. And in Friday's preliminary race, Dean's boat finished first in 5:27.95, two seconds in front of England. But in Sunday's final, it was reversed, as England took the gold in 5:25.75, with Dean's boat finishing second in 5:25.95.

For a Men’s Eight boat with just two races of experience, this World Cup will serve as a worthy litmus test for Paris. “We know we’re better than Italy, who has qualified,” Dean said, “and now we’re going to get a good look at how we stack up against the big dogs because the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 from the World Championships last summer will be racing here against us. If we can medal in this, I think it really bodes well for the summer, so that’s the goal.”

Once his boat crossed the finish line in Lucerne in first place, knowing it meant an Olympic berth, Dean had two initial reactions.

“It’s release, then it’s a confidence booster,” he said. “You qualify, you know that this is the boat, these are the guys, and for the rest of our lives, we’re all going to be Olympians. It gives you that confidence that the training and the work we’ve put in and the things we’ve been doing have worked.”

After Dean’s boat failed to qualify for the Olympics at last year’s World Championships, changes were made. The coxswain and three rowers were replaced. The result is the fastest boat in which Dean has rowed.

“I haven’t been in a boat this fast,” he said, “but I also haven’t been in a boat fast enough to medal at the Olympics. It’s the fastest boat I’ve ever been in. Is it going to be enough? Only time will tell, but I think everyone is really hopeful.”

He’ll be the youngest rower in his boat, but also the only one with Olympic experience. As such, Dean hopes he can be the metronome to his teammates amid the carnival-like atmosphere typical of any Olympic Games.

“I’d like to think I learned a few things (from Tokyo),” he said. “The atmosphere of the Olympics is nothing like rowing in a World Championships. It’s a totally different not-rowing-centered thing. There are way more distractions, way more people. It’s a festival, so I think knowing that going into it, hopefully, I can get the other guys in my boat on the same page and dialed in and not getting distracted.”

The plan, Dean said, is to medal at Paris, “and then kind of reassess and see where my life goes after that.” Following the Olympics, his life path will take Dean back to Boston. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in history, and along the way, Dean met a man who also graduated Harvard, also rowed for the Crimson, and who owned a hedge fund. He let Dean work as an intern, but in September, he starts full-time, with plenty of wall space to hang an Olympic medal.

“That’s the plan,” Clark Dean said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota rower Clark Dean qualifies for Paris Olympics on final chance