CARRYING THE FLAG: Nick Mead poses with the U.S. flag during the Closing Ceremony on August 11 at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Former Princeton University men’s heavyweight crew star Mead ’17 served as one of the U.S. flag bearers at the ceremony along with swimming star Katie Ledecky, becoming the first American rower to be so honored. Ten days earlier, Mead rowed for the U.S. men’s four that won the gold medal, earning the first victory in the event for the Americans since the Rome 1960 Games. (Photo provided by Nick Mead)

By Bill Alden

Nick Mead made history on and off the water as he rowed for the U.S. men’s four at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

At the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium flat-water course, former Princeton University men’s heavyweight star Mead ’17 helped his boat win gold on August 1 as it edged runner-up New Zealand in the A final, earning the first victory in the event for the Americans since the Rome 1960 Games.

A week later, Mead was named as one of the flag bearers along with Katie Ledecky for Team USA at the Closing Ceremony, becoming the first American rower to be so honored.

As for success on the water, Mead sensed that his boat was primed to make a run for the podium as it went through its final training in Italy in the weeks before heading to Paris.

“It was about as good a training camp as we could have asked for,” said Mead, speaking last Friday as he settled back into home in New York City and his job working with the supply chain at Peloton. “In the last few weeks before the Olympics, you are slowly tapering the training. Although about three weeks out you are still training near 100 percent, you are doing more anaerobic high intensity race pace stuff and less of that long, slow aerobic base. We had a few race day simulations with our other boats. We did one final simulation right before we left Italy and we put down a good time. We were feeling good, we felt like the hay is in the barn. Now we just had to stay sharp and start getting as recovered as possible for the racing.”

The U.S. produced a sharp performance in its opening heat on July 28, taking first in a time of 6:04.95 over the 2,000-meter course, nearly two seconds better than runner-up Australia.

“There was a headwind that day so we knew it was going to be a bit of a longer race,” said Mead, who rowed from the bow seat in the boat. “We wanted to make sure that we were putting down a solid base rhythm because the middle kilometer was going to be more important. We were pretty happy with our heat. We felt like we were rowing well, that our start was clean and fast. We looked at the video and we thought we could be a little bit looser on the drive. We felt like maybe the adrenaline of being at the Olympics was making us a little bit tight and a little bit short. Over the next few days, we were thinking when we settle into base, we are going to make a lot of calls about being loose, being elastic.”

Heading into the A final, Mead and his boatmates were focused on blasting off the starting line.

“From a race strategy perspective, we had spent the last year with Casey [Galvanek], our coach, talking about how the one thing that people really ratchet up going from the heat to the final in the Olympics is their start,” said Mead. “The race pace is relatively similar, but everyone pulls out and wants to get the lead in the Olympics. We thought we have a good start but we are going to have to have our best start. Other crews are going to try to push us there in the early stages of the race. The final thing was that we knew New Zealand and Great Britain both had a good third 500. We were getting mentally prepared that we were probably going to have to sprint earlier that we have in the past.”

The race for gold turned into a battle between the U.S. and New Zealand with the Americans posting a winning time of 5:49.03 just ahead of the Kiwis who came in at 5:49.88. In Mead’s view, a turning point in the race came when one of his teammates urged the boat to make a surge.

“In the moment, they pushed into us with maybe 600 or 500 meters to go and they pulled almost exactly even and our stroke seat Liam [Corrigan] made a call ‘red’ which for us is a discretionary call that anyone in the boat can make at any point in the race,” recalled Mead. “It is this one word that means max press for about 10 strokes. It is meant to be a momentum change, it is where we need to break a crew using the momentum of a race. Someone can make that call and that is why he did it there. They were pulling even and gaining a bit of confidence coming close to us. Liam made that call and we max pressed for a few strokes to get a little bit of a lead so when they started to sprint, we had some breathing room.”

As the U.S. boat crossed the line in first, Mead was left breathless by the triumph.

“It was everything I could have hoped for,” said Mead. “I am not a very emotional person. I rarely ever make a big celebration after racing but all four of us just completely lost it.”

Reflecting on the qualities that made the boat special, Mead pointed to a hunger and unity of purpose.

“All four of us had missed out medals in Tokyo so we had an approach to training of we were willing to try anything that we think will make us faster,” said Mead. “One aspect of that is that when we could cross-train when cross-train was on the schedule, we always chose to erg (the ergometer rowing machine) rather than go for a bike ride or a run because for whatever reason erging feels like the most mentally taxing and physically taxing. There has to be a reason for that, there has to be some kind of reward for doing that hard work. We had a good chemistry in terms of everyone was competitive and really wanted to win and sometimes that would manifest itself in arguments like how we should be approaching training. We all settled everything on the water there before we went home. We all had the same goal. If someone is disagreeing with me, it is because it is coming from a place of wanting to win.”

For Mead, standing on the podium with his gold medal as the national anthem was played gave him the chance to savor achieving that goal.

“You never think about what you are going to do on the medal stand, Justin [Best] was crying, I was smiling ear to ear,” said Mead. “Part of the reason it is so emotional is that it happens once every four years to win, that might never happen again for the rest of your life. I think the enormity of all of that hits you then because you have been pushing it to the back of your mind for so long. You never want to think about what you are going to do when you win because you might never do it.”

In the days after the win, Mead got to attend some events and mingle with some current and former Olympians.

“I think that is one of the most beautiful parts of the Olympics is that you get to meet and talk to these other athletes, whether they are from Team USA or from all over the world,” said Mead, who attended golf, wrestling, and taekwondo competitions. “They have the same lifestyle that you do but in a completely different sport, in a completely different place. They are willing to talk to you as an equal and willing to open up to you. It might seem boring to the non-athlete because we are saying how many miles do you run or how many meters do you swim. The person we were most star-struck by was Michael Phelps. We got to meet him. He is someone you grow up watching so to finally meet him in person was really cool.”

It was cool for Mead to learn that he had an opportunity to be a flag bearer for the U.S. at the Closing Ceremony although he believed he had a slim chance of being selected for the honor.

“The process was that each team nominated a man and a woman to be a flag bearer for Team USA,” said Mead. “I was nominated by the rowing team so I knew I was in the running but I had no inkling at all that I would get it. Partially because I don’t have the Olympic resume that some other athletes do and the other half of that is that rowing isn’t a popular sport.”

Mead found out that he had been chosen through a bit of a ruse. One of his teammates, Justin Best, told the boat that they that were going to do a media segment with Anheuser-Busch on the Thursday morning before the Closing Ceremony. Best, though, knew that that Mead was actually going to be informed on camera that he had been chosen as one of the U.S. flag bearers. The quartet showed for the shoot and Mead was stunned to get the news.

“Justin, the one who knows what is happening, starts describing how this Olympics is historical for our team, he starts talking about Simone and Katie and then he goes for you Nick you are going to be the first rowing flag bearer,” said Mead. “The guys with the cameras expected me to have this huge emotional reaction. I was just so shocked, I stood up and said wow, I have chills. I think one of the first things I said was that I needed a haircut.”

While Mead had chills and was thrilled to be chosen for the honor, he wasn’t sure that he deserved to be picked over any of his boatmates.

“It was both incredibly humbling and exciting but also overwhelming in a lot of ways,” said Mead. “I am in a boat of four, I am just 25 percent of the crew. It feels like in a lot of ways, why am I being singled out. I was really proud to represent rowing, especially the first time we ever had a flag bearer. I wanted to represent us well; it also felt strange being me and not the rest of my teammates.”

Mead had a dinner with Ledecky and some of their teammates and families to get acquainted before they shared the flag.

“We got to know each other out of the spotlight,” said Mead. “She is down to earth and humble.”

Things were pretty hectic for Meadows and Ledecky as they got to the Stade de France for the festivities.

“You line up with Team USA, it takes a couple of hours to get to the venue and we finally get to the venue at 8:40,” said Mead. “We get there and they are frantically putting the mics on us as we walk out. There is another volunteer who is telling us which way we are supposed to walk. We are getting all of this information, we walk out of the tunnel and there are 80,000 people in the stadium. It is really cool, there is music playing and people cheering and then you just hear Jimmy Fallon in your ear asking questions. It is pretty hard to hear him over all of that noise.”

Encountering the vibe in the stadium proved to be a highlight of the experience for Mead.

“I think it was that first moment of walking through the tunnel,” said Mead. “A lot of the Olympics goes by so quickly, you are always going from thing to thing. Sometimes you take it for granted or you don’t fully appreciate how many people are involved and are watching. You walk in and you see a full stadium of people and you one of only a few standing there holding the flag. Right now I am getting chills thinking about it.”

Mead appreciated getting the chance to represent his sport in that manner.

“There is LeBron [James] on Team USA and other athletes who are very famous,” said Mead of the basketball superstar who was a U.S. flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony along with pro tennis player Coco Gauff. “Ninety percent of us are just training in some small town in the United States, not really in the spotlight at all. I think it is cool to have someone like myself be a flag bearer.”

One of the best aspects of being in the spotlight at the Paris Games for Mead was the chance to interact with old Princeton teammates and friends.

“It was really cool and heartening to see all of the Princeton athletes over there, the fencers, a Ugandan rower (Kathleen Noble ’18), my old teammates like Tim [Masters] and Tom [George],” said Mead, 29, who is getting married this October and believes that the Paris Olympics may be the final chapter of his rowing career. “There were a lot of Princeton people in the stands during the rowing. It felt like a mini reunion. You get e-mails from people and alums I haven’t talked to in years. It is really nice to reconnect with them.”

Mead certainly did Princeton proud with his success on and off the water in Paris.