DORNEY, England — In the early hours here Thursday morning, when Taylor Ritzel walked along Lake Dorney, 25 miles west of London in the delightfully named county of Buckinghamshire, she looked up at the overcast English sky.
As if on cue, the clouds parted. The sun shined down on her. So did something else: a presence.
Ritzel said to herself, “I know she’s here.”
One year and nine months ago, Ritzel sat on her mom’s death bed. Just before her mom passed away from breast cancer, Taylor promised she would make the Olympic team in her honor.
On Thursday afternoon, wearing the red, white and blue, the former Douglas County High School swimmer did her mom one better. She helped the U.S. women’s eight win gold. For the U.S. it meant a continuation of one of the greatest streaks in these Olympic Games. The U.S. women’s eight hasn’t lost since 2005. It has won six consecutive world championships and consecutive Olympic gold medals.
For Ritzel, the struggling high school swimmer who found her calling in the Yale crew house, gold meant a late gift to her mother. After all, her mother gave her the greatest gift of all: rowing.
It was Lana Ritzel, the entrepreneur of her own mergers and acquisitions business with her husband, Tom, who talked Yale’s crew coaches into showing an interest in her bright, strong and tall daughter.
Taylor was asked if she ever got emotional during the day.
“Yeah, the starting line I was thinking about my mom,” she said, “and, obviously, finishing — once I got oxygen back to my brain and figured out what was going on.”
She didn’t row alone. Former Yale teammates and about 15 family members and friends from Colorado watched her make history. That didn’t include her elderly grandfather, ex-Broncos coach Red Miller, but it did include her father, who rented a house here by the lake.
“This is a dream come true because she worked her butt off since she was 5 years old,” Tom said. “It was her dream to swim but it didn’t turn the way she hoped. She always had a desire to be an Olympian and she did it.
“She found the right sport.”
And what would Lana have said if she was by his side?
“Her mom would be in tears right now and the most excited, happiest person on the planet,” he said. “It’s just a shame she couldn’t be here.”
Ritzel had a little pressure. It wasn’t so much to win a gold medal for her mom. She’d already fulfilled one promise, making the team. But the U.S. was a gold medal favorite against a Canadian team that has shown a lot of spunk of late. The Americans edged Canada by .03 in Lucerne, Switzerland, at a May World Cup, setting up a showdown at this idyllic setting, so rural and lazy sheep graze not far from the medal stand.
The showdown was a mow down. Team U.S. led wire to wire, going from a quarter boat lead at 500 meters to half a boat length at 1,000 meters then two-thirds at 1,500 before the U.S. had to stave off late comebacks by first the Netherlands and then Canada.
The U.S. finished in 6:10.59 with Canada getting the silver in 6:12.06 and Netherlands the bronze at 6:13.12.
“We were surprised where we were to be ahead so early,” Ritzel said. “I think it was our best race yet.”
Ritzel didn’t need a history lesson. She’s been on the national team for three years but is one of only two members who weren’t on the eight that won gold in Beijing. At 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, she’s the biggest woman on the U.S team, providing much of the power from the fourth seat.
“I have so much trust in Taylor,” said teammate Francia Zsuzsanna, a two-time Olympian. “She’s always ready to go. She’s always upbeat. She’s just a real joy to be around the whole time.”
This is also just the beginning. At 23, Ritzel is the youngest person on the team. She’ll return to Larkspur for a big party near the end of August and then it’s back to training. She now has a winning streak to preserve.
“Being able to compete at this level is a dream come true and a real honor,” she said. “If you’d talked to me six years ago I don’t know where I was. Being able to make it to the top of the sport and bring home a gold medal to the United States is something I can’t talk clearly about.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299, jhenderson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnhendersondp
