By Milly McEvoy, Sportsbeat 

James Cracknell believes Team GB are in pole position to dominate the rowing at Paris 2024 after being powered by a poor showing in Tokyo. 

In Japan, Britain failed to win a gold medal in rowing for the first time since 1980, coming home with only a silver and a bronze. Since then, the nation have topped the World and European Championships tables in 2022 and 2024 respectively. 

And double Olympic champion Cracknell, who will be working with Eurosport and discovery+ for their coverage, said. “In terms of the performance in Tokyo, one of the difficulties was the change in coach. he old chief coach was my chief coach so I don’t think he should have been changed. 

“But then they went to altitude camp which is very difficult to get right, and a lot of the travelling was based around covid restrictions so did they get the right acclimatisation?  

“And I just don’t think they raced up to their potential but that has meant that with a shorter Olympic cycle the British team came back and really hit the ground running. 

“And have built up momentum and the other teams have been racing to catch up.  

“Some of events, they have really shown they are getting closer so the last eight weeks on the final camps will show if they have caught up or they have left it too late.” 

Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics 

Long-term men’s rowing head coach Jurgen Grobler, who had coached Great Britain to a gold medal at every Olympic Games between 1992 and 2016, departed in August 2020. After the difficult Tokyo Games Brendan Purcell made way as Director of Performance as Louise Kingsley took over ahead of Paris 2024 with Paul Stannard named as men’s coach. 

Rowing came under scrutiny as its large budget was not matched by its historically good results and Cracknell believes the fine margins that saw some crews miss out on medals by will be motivating them in Paris. 

He added: “I think the realisation of how much you put in, particularly in that five-year cycle for Tokyo and then the difference, in a small sport, between winning and a silver is massive.  

“In terms of your life choices, opportunities that come around, having to wait another three/four years to carry on.  

“The people who experienced that thought we are not going to waste it, we are going to absolutely get on it and go for gold whereas they may have stopped if they had won.  

“That has been a whole group thing, no one won gold, so everyone was frustrated and disappointed in themselves and that motivation is what has made the big difference, other countries have been shocked by it and it has taken a while to get them back on terms.” 

Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics