PARIS – On the way to the rowing venue last Saturday, the bus broke down. On board, among others, was 24-year-old Yauheni Zalaty of Belarus. He was on his way to race what in rowing is called the single sculls.
That means it’s just him, oars and the boat.
Many sports at the Olympics are tough. Rowing is – tough. Rowers know that single sculls is among the toughest, both physically and mentally. You’re out there alone. Just you, oars and the boat.
That Zalaty was even here at the Olympics in the first instance was something of a thing. Two-plus years into the war in Ukraine, not even three dozen athletes from Belarus and Russia had been approved by the International Olympic Committee for Paris 2024 competition. Just two had gotten the OK for rowing, both from Belarus, Zalaty and a female single sculler, 29-year-old Tatsiana Klimovich. “It’s just a little bridge that sport can keep in this very difficult situation,” the president of World Rowing, Jean-Christophe Rolland, would say.
And now the bus had broken down.
Yauheni Zalaty with his silver medal in men’s single sculls // World Rowing / Benedict Tufnell
Zalaty’s race was due to start. Under crazy pressure, World Rowing officials had to decide what to do – go ahead without him, or show some grace.
They had minutes, maybe three, possibly four, to decide what to do. All in, six men were in the race. Two were already on the water, warming up. Was this about Zalaty? Only him? What about the others? Would they be unfairly compromised if the race, the Olympic final, the race of everyone’s life, was delayed – for a competitor, a rival?
What to do?
The easy call would be no. That is, to simply say the race was called for 10:30 Saturday – it starts at 10:30. If you’re there, you’re there. If not – that’s on you.
Instead, in one of the hugely untold stories of these Paris Olympics, in a move of empathy and understanding that underscores the common humanity that at its core is the essence of the Olympic spirit, the notion that together we are better than apart and that everyone, everyone, deserves a chance no matter the considerable differences ripping at us in a world torn by conflict, World Rowing pushed back the start of the Olympic final in men’s single sculls for one full hour.
Yauheni Zalaty not only got to the race.
He won silver.
But this, as amazing as it is, and it is amazing, only starts to tell the story.
“This is indeed an incredible story,” Rolland said, adding, “I even dare to say almost a miracle.”
There are four pieces to this miracle. Three had to happen for Yauheni Zalaty to win silver. The fourth is – well, the real miracle.
No. 1: he had to qualify for the Games.
No. 2: he had to get to the Games. That is, to Paris. With a boat.
No. 3: he had to get to the race final.
Qualifying
After war broke out in Ukraine, the IOC found itself under intense pressure from many in the West not to allow any athletes from either Russia or Belarus at the Paris 2024 Games.
The long-running Russian doping saga amplified pressure on the IOC to keep Russia and, by extension, Belarus, out.
IOC president Thomas Bach has said, time and again, that the existential purpose of the Games – of, more broadly, sport – in what he calls our “fragile’ world is to try to bring people together. Another phrase he turns to: bridges, not walls.
At an Olympic Games, the international sports federations – not the IOC – run the sports. Thus, for instance, at track and field there are no competitors at the Paris Games from Russia or Belarus. Some number of other sports, however, decided that under strict guidelines set forth by the IOC a limited number of athletes could – should – be here. They are called Individual Neutral Athletes.
In IOC jargon, AIN athletes.
All in, there are 32 AIN competitors. In rowing, two. Just the two from Belarus. None from Russia.
Zalaty – in English, his first name would be more familiar as Yevgeni – seemingly earned a quota spot for the Paris Olympics last September 10, finishing seventh at the rowing world championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
What then ensued: thorough background checks, to make sure he had no connection to the war. Rigorous anti-doping protocols.
It wasn’t until just weeks before the Games, working with the IOC, that it would be confirmed that Zalaty – and Klimovich, who had earned a quota spot at the European championships, in April 2024 in Hungary – would be OK for Paris. “It was a roller-coaster ride,” said Nathalie Phillips, 39, the Swiss-British head of sports and events for World Rowing.
“Then,” she said, “the challenges started with his boat.”
Getting to Paris
In single sculls rowing, having your own boat is exceptionally important. An analogy: it’s a little like a baseball player’s glove.
A rower knows and wants his (or her) boat. Especially at the Olympics.
The problem: driving from Belarus to Paris means going west, crossing first into the European Union through Poland.
The EU now has a general ban on such sports equipment coming in from Belarus and Russia.
A loophole appeared to suggest that if the owner of such sports equipment – say, a single sculls rowing boat – crossed the border in a personal car, that person and the boat would be OK to cross.
“Once we understood this clause, that was the only possible way – for Zalaty and, as well, Klimovich to be in the car,” Phillips said.
The boat issue became known on July 12. By July 18, World Rowing officials believed – after many calls and emails, including to senior Polish border control officials – the situation was in hand. “All the documentation was provided,” Phillips said. “We sent it through to border control.”
Terespol, Poland, on the Bug River, lies directly across from Brest, Belarus.
On the 18th, Zalaty and Klimovich appeared at the Terespol border crossing.
At 10 that evening, Phillips said, there was news.
They were not being allowed to pass into Poland with their boats.
Deep breaths. Plan B.
Zalaty and Klimovich would end up flying to Paris.
“They ended up taking a flight,” Phillips said, “not knowing if they’d have a boat.”
Klimovich rows in an Italian-made boat. One such boat, it turned out, was already in Paris. In one of the earlier races last Saturday, she finished eighth overall – second in the B final.
For Zalaty, things proved far more complicated.
“Three days before the Games,” Rolland said, “he had no boat.”
Zalaty uses a German boat, and not only that, a specific model of this German boat. Searching “all over Europe,” Phillips said, with the help of the IOC and several national rowing federations, a German boat did turn up – but a different model.
Imagine driving in a BMX X3 and being offered an X5. No.
Now, the correct model did turn up, and relatively nearby. But it needed some refurbishing. And it needed to get to the Olympic course, transport-wise. And time was ticking.
All of this got done.
“It was really nice to see the support from rowing community to this athlete,” Phillips said. “To help him find a boat for the Games despite the situation, the war, it wasn’t about that anymore. It was about sport, the community and the athlete. It was really nice to see the support. It really showed that rowing is a real family and not giving up on someone. We could all work together to find a solution.”
The race final
Rowing began July 27, a full week before the men’s single sculls final, at the 2000-meter course at Vaires-sur-Marne east of central Paris.
The first men’s single sculls heats took place that first Saturday, the morning after opening ceremony. Tuesday the 30th saw the quarterfinals, Thursday August 1 the semifinals.
Zalaty, let’s remember, was competing here in Paris with a boat that was not his.
Too, he had no coach.
The lanes for the A final included the Tokyo champion in the event, Stefanos Ntouskos, as well as Germany’s Oliver Zeidler, the 2019, 2022 and 203 world champion in single sculls whose grandfather and aunt are Olympic rowing gold medalists, and Holland’s Simon van Dorp, second behind Zeidler at the 2023 worlds.
Also: Belgium’s Tim Brys, fifth in double sculls in Tokyo, and Thomas Mackintosh, who had won gold in Tokyo as part of New Zealand’s men’s eight.
The Olympic Village is in a precinct north of Paris called Seine-Saint-Denis. Vaires-sur-Marne is roughly 25 miles away.
Zalaty got on a bus that left the Village last Saturday at 8:15 in the morning. His plan was to get to the course by 9. Again, the race was called for 10:30.
About midway through the trip to Vaires-sur-Marne, the bus broke down.
Eric Catalano, 50, of Saratoga Springs, New York, a coach on the U.S. team, was among those on the bus.
“We pulled over to the side of the road. Different languages were being spoken. Nobody knew,” he said, “what was going on.”
After a couple minutes, the engine kicked back to life. The bus moved maybe a mile. Then back to the side of the road. Dead.
The driver got neon safety vests and passed them out with instructions for everyone to put one on. “There was a lot of chatter in foreign languages,” Catalano said, “a lot of shaking of heads and rolling of eyes.” Another bus showed up. So, too, police. Officers had to get everyone from one bus to another and then, just like every bus leaving the Village, spend some minutes sealing it – doors, gas cap – per security protocol.
The AIN guy from Belarus about to race in the A final?
Zalalaty was in the middle of the bus “doing some mobility exercises,” Catalano said, adding, “He probably kept his cool really well given the scenario.”
Meantime, Rolland had been informed about the broken-down bus. He sent an urgent WhatsApp message to key federation leaders – we have to meet – and looked at the time. It was 9:47.
Already, Ntouskos from Greece and Rhys from Belgium were in the water, getting ready. Rolland and team had three, max four minutes to decide what to do.
The A Final of men’s eight was due to be the last event of the entire Paris 2024 racing calendar, the big bang to send everyone home – men’s eight the subject of, for instance, the book and movie about the 1936 U.S. gold medal team, The Boys in the Boat.
World Rowing president Jean-Christophe Rolland
“It’s a matter of an immediate decision under big pressure,” Rolland said, now referring to the single sculls: “We are talking athletes who have worked … years to be part of this final, and we know that this decision will impact them.”
The first question: was any of this Zalaty’s fault? Was he on a bus later than he should have been?
Quick answer: no.
The rowing people were helped immensely here because with them, as it turned out, was Pierre Ducrey, the No. 2 official in the IOC department that oversees the running of a Games.
That 8:15 bus? It left, they all now knew, at 8:18.
The huddle: Rolland; first vice president Tricia Smith of Canada; Rosie Mayglothling of Great Britain, chair of the competitive rowing commission; Eva Szanto of Hungary; and treasurer Gerritjan Eggenkamp of Holland. All five are on the federation’s executive committee.
Anyone who knows Olympic history knows the story from Munich in 1972, when the American sprinters Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson arrived at the stadium minutes after their races had been run. Their coach, Stan Wright, took the blame. He said he was working off a schedule that showed their races were to be run later that evening. Sorry, officials said — disqualified.
Fifty-two years later in Paris:
“OK, first the athlete is not responsible,” Rolland said Thursday in a lengthy interview, referring to Zalaty.
“We cannot prevent him from having an opportunity he probably will not have again in his life. But by doing so, we would also have to consider the impact on the other athletes. So, it’s not only about him.
“… We can, I can feel the also the pressure, the stress these athletes were [feeling] at the moment.”
Rolland went on: “I’m very grateful to the people I have with me in my executive board … we did have this debate,” even in limited time, “how not to react by emotion, to really think, to put emotion aside and to see what was best in considering the situation.
“What values do we believe in? How can we make the best decision for sport? For the future?”
The call: put the single sculls off until 11:30.
Zalaty in action // NOC Belarus
The next practical matter: bring the Belgian and Greek racers off the water, at least for a few minutes. They would have to resume warmups.
Steve Whelpley, 41, of Craftsbury Common, Vermont, had a racer in the men’s C final that Saturday morning. He saw Rhys and Ntouskos come in. “You heard a little bit of anxious nerves, people speculating,” Whelpley said, but quickly the conversation shifted: “Everyone realized, it’s the nature of the Games: we want everyone to compete and everyone was pretty OK with the delay.”
“I knew,” Rolland said, “that this might have put us in a very, very difficult situation. But, again … we were guided by what was best for the sport, for the athletes and what was in line with our values. I mean, I will fight for the values. Not for anything else.
“But for the values of sport.”
The replacement bus arrived at Vaires-sur-Marne at 10:08.
Everyone warmed up.
There were no complaints from any of the other five competitors. “I was very happy I wasn’t on the water yet,” Zeidler would say after. “I hadn’t even left the boat park. My dad and I, we smiled about it and said, OK, let me know when I should start again with warmup, most likely it will be after eights. It actually was not a big deal for me … one hour back and forth, it was not a big issue for us.
“Similarly for me,” van Dorp said, adding, “I just saw it as, yeah, almost an opportunity, we all have the same issue, it’s how you deal with it at that point.”
“This,” Rolland said, “is exactly what sport is about.”
The race went off, now at 11:30.
Zalaty, right, with race winner Oliver Zeidler of Germany // NOC Belarus
Zeidler went off to a big lead and stayed there, winning in 6:37.57. “The final was so easy, mentally,” he said afterward.
Zalaty was fifth at 500, dead last at 1000 and 1500 and then crushed the final 500 meters, sprinting from last to second to cross in 6:42.96.
Van Dorp held on for third in 6:44.72.
The Tokyo champ, Ntouskos, finished sixth. Brys got fourth, Mackinosh fifth.
“It was very tough,” van Dorp told reporters after the race. “I’d been trying to chase Ollie,” meaning Zeidler, “and at one point my legs just said no. You don’t have much to counter with. I knew that Yauheni has a very good sprint. It was clear that I had to do everything to try and hold him off but I couldn’t.”
Depending how you look at it, Zalaty’s medal marked the third at the Paris Games for the AIN cohort – they’re now up to four after a silver in women’s doubles, won by a Russian pair, the others won by athletes from Belarus, in men’s and women’s trampoline – or, if you see it the way they do in the newspapers in Belarus, the first ever for the country in men’s rowing.
It was, no question, Zalaty’s first major podium.
“I gave it my all,” Zalaty said, according to the BelTA Belarus news agency. “Neither the bus breakdown before the race nor any other circumstances had an impact. I rowed at the top of my game.”
Yulia Bichyk, who partnering with Natalia Helakh won Olympic bronze in coxless pairs in 2004 and 2008 and is now the Belarus national team head coach, said, referring to men’s single sculls, “This is the most prestigious class in rowing, where an athlete shows both physical and mental fitness. Yauheni was all style and confidence, and we are very proud of him.”
Whelpley, the American coach, said: “What I think is interesting is that even in ancient Greece, there could have been fighting between the city-states and there would have been a truce for the duration of the Olympics. There’s a beauty in it, a beauty that an individual can display their athletic prowess.”
The real miracle
A couple hours after the quarterfinals, on July 30, Zalaty got a call from home.
His wife, Ksenya, a national team rower known on the world circuit by her maiden name, Romanovskaya, had just given birth to their first child, a boy.
They named him Mark.
Zalaty said – this was before the A final – it was the biggest victory of his life.