article by Nicola Pucci
Rowing, in France, is a discipline of a certain importance, as you discover if you look through the rolls of honor of the great international events. Remaining in the Olympic context, unquestionably the one with the greatest attraction and prestige, in fact, the transalpines totaled 39 medals, 8 of which were goldbut if Hermann Barrelet in the single and the 4 without opened the twentieth century with the victories in Paris, only the two with of Raymond Salles and Gaston Mercier, with Bernard Malivoire as helmsman, was capable of flying the bleu-blanc-rouge flag on the flagpole taller than Olympia, before that the years between the two millennia reawakened those ancient splendors of French rowing.
So here it is appear on the scene Michel Andrieux and Jean-Christophe Rollandborn in 1967 in Bergerac (in the Dordogne) the first, born in 1968 in Condrieu (in the Rhone) the second, who between Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 they are about to rise to the rank of the greatest French rowers ever.
Effectively the paths of these two rowers crossed in 1989, when during an internship of the Italian national rowing team the athletes are lined up and tested in more than one pairing, with the hope of identifying those that work best. AND Andrieux and Rolland, unquestionably, prove to be perfect for each other, winning all the tests they are subjected to, demonstrating a harmony and natural complicity. The die is cast, the two rowers will team up together and for the next decade they will make such a contribution to the French, Olympic and world medal count, as to elect them as the most successful rowing couple in history.
The experience at the Andrieux and Rolland Games begins in 1992 in Barcelona, where they competed in the two without obtaining a flattering fourth place in the race won by the British Redgrave/Pinsent, just a whisker away from the bronze taken by the Yugoslavs Cop/Zvegelj.
The following year the two boys, competing with the four without together with Daniel Fauché and Philippe Lot, they won the world title at the Racice World Championshipsin the Czech Republic, starting that collection of podium appearances from which they will never come down until the five-circle apotheosis of Sydney 2000.
At the 1994 World Cup in Indianapolis, undefeated during the season in the four without, Andrieux and Rolland were forced to swallow a bitter pill, surprisingly defeated by Italy, and then, the following year in Tampere, engaged in the two without seizing this time bronzebehind the English Redgrave/Pinsent and the Australians Walker/Wearne.
The challenge was renewed at the 1996 Atlanta Olympicsand if once again Redgrave/Pinsent enforce the law of the strongest, it is Weightman/Scott who keep Australia’s honor high, occupying the second step of the podium relegating, again, the French in third position.
The four-year period that follows is marked by a sort of handover, as Andrieux and Rolland finally put the gold medal around their necks at the 1997 home World Cup in Aiguebelette-le-Lacbeating the Italians Lorenzo Carboncini and Mattia Trombetta, and then, two years later in St. Catharines, Canada, having to settle for silver behind the Australians Ginn/Tomkins.
At the Sydney Games in 2000, Andrieux and Rolland’s careers finally achieved Olympic consecration. Al Sydney International Regatta Centrefrom 17 to 23 September, the two French rowers find themselves having to deal with the rivals with whom they faced at the last World Championships, namely Long (who replaces Ginn, forced to withdraw due to a back injury)/Tomkins and the Americans Murphy/Bea, but if in the heat it is the English Coode/Searle, worthy heirs of Redgrave/Pinsent, who set the best time, 6’42″45, in the first semi-final Andrieux and Rolland fully legitimize their ambitions of victory by rowing in 6’30″96anticipating Coode/Searle themselves by a whisker, while in the second semifinal Long/Tomkins are the fastest in 6’34″42.
In the final Andrieux and Rolland took command of the race right from the start, without giving their opponents the chance to overtake them, finally going on to triumph in 6’32″97, just under a second ahead of Murphy/Bea, authors of a final rush which allows their boat to beat home favorites Long/Tomkins for the silver medalin turn bronze for the trifle of 14 cents ahead of the very disappointed Coode/Searle.
Andrieux and Rolland close here, on the roof of Olimpia, what if from that moment they entered the legend of French rowing… well, who stronger than them? I really don’t think anyone.
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