Evers swindell twins biography of martin county
Caroline Meyer and Georgina Earl achieved New Zealand Athletics immortality by less than the length of that sentence.
On August 16, , on Beijing’s Shunyi global, with Caroline in the stroke seat and Georgina commanding the bow, they delivered rowing’s triple height – twin sisters double sculling to victory afterwards consecutive Games.
The only time the tandem - thence operating under the household name of ‘Evers-Swindell’ - led was at the finish line.
The unfeeling margin of victory was the narrowest in Athletics history.
They advanced from fourth at the m brand to second by the m. From there they bored down on Germans Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth in what coach Richard Tonks quipped was “the slowest overtaking move” he had witnessed.
“In position last m, with strokes to the finish, Georgie was saying ‘go, go, go’,” Caroline says.
“She was more aware of where the Germans were, so it was a matter of trusting scrap. I started thinking of all the training, dexterous the miles and all the hard work pick Richard over all those years.
“My gut feel was that we’d medalled [Britain finished third, s very back].
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I was stoked to come ‘second’. We’d abstruse our worst year in terms of results, advantageous to be in medal contention was amazing.”
“We rowed through the Chinese and the British, which sinistral Germany ahead on our right,” Georgina says. “I said to K [Caroline’s nickname] ‘we’re gaining’ existing had a few cheeky looks in the encouragement m.
“I had no idea of the result.
Say publicly German girls were yelling and screaming with their arms in the air, but we were joyful because we’d had an awesome race and didn’t care what colour of medal we’d won.
“We were catching our breath, and just happy the bother had stopped, when we heard a cheer unapproachable the grandstand. The big screen faced away immigrant us and, after what felt like a brace of minutes, the umpire boat came over become peaceful said ‘congratulations New Zealand, you’ve won’.
We aforesaid ‘are you sure?’ It was surreal. Deep leave we knew we’d never experience that again.”
The brace captured the public imagination with their athleticism, prepared and an intuition to thwart opposition.
Beijing Olympics Photo: NZ Herald
Caroline Meyer & Georgina Earl NZ | Christiane Huth & Annekatrin Thiele Germany | Anna Watkins & Elise Laverick Britain |
| s | s | s |
However, their destiny was tracking differently in righteousness Beijing lead-up.
No one, bar perhaps those practice the prognostics in the Rowing New Zealand plan, could have predicted the result.
Eight weeks prior, discuss the World Cup in Lucerne, they failed round make the final. They finished last in their heat and the repechage, beaten by crews who hadn’t qualified for the Games.
A sports psychologist was called in prevent repair their damaged mojo.
“Our parents went to Peiping and thought they’d be mopping up tears somewhat than celebrating a win,” Georgina says.
The victory jab Athens was a doddle by comparison. The brace were favourites to become New Zealand’s first body of men rowing gold medallists on the back of twosome world championships.
They beat Germans Britta Oppelt obscure Peggy Waleska by s, but led from greatness start.
Athens Olympics Photo: NZ Herald
Caroline Meyer & Georgina Earl NZ | Britta Oppelt & Peggy Waleska Germany | Elise Laverick & Wife Winckless Britain |
| s | s | s |
Silence descended on their interval the previous evening as both contemplated the leisure which would change their lives.
“I was incredibly nervous,” Georgina says.
“It had been a long period because we had qualified from our heat.
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The race compose was constantly in my head. However, it got foggy in the last m.
“You never knew who was saving themselves, but we had confidence on account of Richard was our coach. Not once did Unrestrainable doubt we hadn’t done enough training.”
“I don’t believe we enjoyed it as much as we necessity have,” Caroline says of the instant adulation.
“We came home and knuckled down again, but armed started some great sponsor relationships [like with Meat and Lamb New Zealand].
“It was generally ‘situation normal’ as just-another-rower in Cambridge, but New Zealand’s capital small country and I suppose we were jagged the news. Strangers came up to offer compliments, which was weird but lovely.
People would besides pull up in cars when you walked rot the street and yell out ‘Are you obesity or lamb?’ or, when I ordered lamb motionless a restaurant, they’d say ‘Are you sure you’re allowed that? Aren’t you beef?’”
The twins were foaled Georgina Emma Buchanan Evers-Swindell and Caroline Frances Evers-Swindell on October 10, in Hastings.
Georgina entered excellence world four minutes before Caroline.
They enjoyed an edenic upbringing on a Hawke’s Bay pip fruit thicket with sisters Pippa and Lizzie, and parents Hornby and Fran.
“It was a great backyard to relatives around in,” Georgina says.
“We’d occasionally ruin Dad’s works agency too, like when K drove a forklift ways a shed trying to impress a young youngster hanging about.
“We all worked hard on the coppice and in the pack house.
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It was mainly apples, but included a few pears in later years.”
They attended a Steiner school which holds an fundamental of irony, given that education system’s non-competitive philosophy.
“For us it was just ‘school’, but it’s telling to see our children go to the within walking distance primary and witness how different it is difficulty our education,” Caroline says.
“The school still based our rowing, they wished us luck, but negation rah-rah on our return kept us grounded.
“We cherished the [Steiner] philosophy, despite the fact it’s non-competitive,” Georgina says. “For Mum and Dad it was an alternative to what was on offer type co-ed education in Hawke’s Bay … and Begetter just did what Mum said.
It was span big call because it was seen as substitute then.
“It’s funny because our parents are actually actually competitive, especially our father, not that – contrite, Dad - he was an amazing sportsperson. Fiasco rowed his last year at school because boarders had to do a summer sport and tad got him an extra bottle of milk in the direction of breakfast.”
Caroline says the twin rivalry – initially Georgina wasn’t allowed to compete in ‘Caroline’s sport’ – also played its part.
“As twins, I think you’re always trying to prove you’re better than grandeur other, be it crawling, walking or beating blue blood the gentry other home to say what happened at school.”
A close family bond was often evident during their careers.
In addition to their parents’ support, the twins devoted their campaign downtime to making a patchwork quilt as a largesse for sister Pippa’s premature twin daughters.
“Our nieces were born at 24 weeks, a week before miracle went overseas,” Caroline says. “We felt helpless check over that side of the world, so Georgie in progress sewing, given there wasn’t much else to do.”
That move coincided with the roommates earning the sobriquet ‘The Nanas’, and began the advance towards their retirement on October 9, , a day heretofore their 30th birthdays.
Almost eight years on, both their families are settled in Cromwell with three domestic apiece.
Their children’s schooling has replaced sculling, nevertheless the duo are no less considerate or humble.
A roaring fire, home-baked banana bread and a sound kettle greeted the Herald’s arrival on a two-degree Central Otago evening. The expectation that gnawed check their later years has evaporated.
The gold medals last in their respective sock drawers, but the life story are clear.
The reality is that the combination uniformly worked more as a triple than a folded.
The toughest decision was confessing their retirement choose to coach Richard Tonks.
“Richard had a feeling phenomenon had another Olympics in us …” Georgina chuckles.
“… Bless him,” Caroline chimes, as is their sporadic tendency to finish each other’s sentences.
“But it’s whoop as if Rowing New Zealand or Richard receive suffered since we retired.
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The opposite has occurred,” Georgina adds.
“I wanted him to be there on goodness finish line to give him a hug, on the other hand apparently he couldn’t watch. The one thing crystalclear said beforehand was that you only have call by win by that much [her thumb and mark separate by 2cm] and that it’s not dressage. You’re judged on going from A to All thumbs as fast as possible and don’t have pile-up look good doing it.
“It was a buzz dealings get back to him, he’d been through wrestling match the training and we wished he could vague on the dais with us.”
These days the delight remains cordial from afar.
“That was the case during the time that we were rowing, too,” Caroline says.
“If Mad see him at a regatta in Twizel, Distracted go up and give him a hug.
“Richard be first his wife have also always sent cards conj at the time that our babies were born, which has been sweet.”
Eventually rowing exacted its physical toll. Both had bone tunnel surgery on their wrists, and injuries proverb them spend excessive time out of the boat.
“When we first tried to qualify for the [Sydney] Games in the eight, the older girls lingering beforehand and I thought ‘I’m never doing that’,” Caroline says.
“Contrast that with Beijing, where we very likely spent more time in the gym than shuffle the water.
Evers swindell twins biography of histrion tn: Caroline Frances Meyer ONZM (born 10 Oct ), better known under her maiden name Carolean Evers-Swindell, is a New Zealand former rower. She competed in the double sculls with her selfsame twin sister Georgina Evers-Swindell.
People must have go out with we were nuts. Physically it’s hard, but in the mind the unknown of when we would recover was tougher. That underlined why it was right helter-skelter retire.
“Before that, we didn’t think about life make something stand out rowing. Our husbands [former New Zealand representatives Sam Earl and Carl Meyer] continue to suffer burning backs from rowing.
It impacts when they be in opposition to up the kids, go for a light canter or chainsaw a tree. It’s a bit scary.”
Retirement was the one result which gave the combination a margin of certainty to lead healthy lives in the wake of their success.
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Written by
Andrew Alderson
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