Becky Wilde is in disbelief after making the final of the women’s doubles sculls just 10 months on from having surgery.
She and Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne finished second in their semi-final to progress to Thursday’s final.
The only British boat in action on Tuesday, they are the fifth Team GB boat through to a final so far, with four boats, including the women’s eight, qualifying straight through to their finals from the heats.
“When I actually think back, it’s unbelievable,” she said. “I had surgery on my forearms in September.
“If you’d have told me I’d have made an Olympic final after that, I’d never have believed you. It’s always a dream but to have actually done it, it’s still sinking in.
“We’ve watched all the results all week and seen how strong all of the crews looked.
“Watching the eight and seeing how strong they were in the third 500m, we’ve done exactly the same training as them, we can do that. It was very confidence-boosting.”
With just herself and Wilde in the boat, Hodgkins-Byrne also praised the support around them for putting them in a position to contest for a medal.
Hodgkins-Byrne was cheered on by son Freddie, who she gave birth to in 2022, as she looks to claim a first senior major medal in the women’s double sculls.
The pair posted the fifth-fastest time across both semi-finals, with their time of 6:51.82, just 0.41 seconds behind their semi-final winners Romania.
She said: “I didn’t actually consider Freddie, if I’m completely honest! If I had, we probably would have been winning by too much.
“I was just trying to stay in time with Becky. I’m looking forward to seeing him later.
“Especially in a small boat, having a bigger support network is really important, otherwise there’s a lot of pressure to keep each other going.
“I’m not saying we can’t do it but there’s only one person to turn to. Having them relieves a bit of the pressure from each other.
“We said before we wanted to do 80:20, 80 in our boat and 20 of roughly where everyone was.
“It’s really nice to just go down your lane, my aim was just to follow Becky and show what we can do and I think we showed that.
“I’m excited to see what we can do in the final.”