Not since 1984, at Los Angeles, had the United States won Olympic gold in the women's eight rowing competition.
Sunday, inspired by that 1984 crew, Team USA was once again golden.
From Modesto's Erin Cafaro in the bow seat to coxswain Mary Whipple of Sacramento, the U.S. was a well-oiled machine.
Winners of the past two World Championships, the Americans rowed 2,000 meters in 6 minutes, 5.34 seconds at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.
Romania was trying for a fourth consecutive Olympic win in the event, having beaten the U.S. by nearly two seconds at the 2004 Athens Games.
The Netherlands used a furious final 500 meters Sunday to edge Romania by three-hundredths of a second for silver. The Dutch finished 1.88 seconds behind Team USA.
Others on the crew were Lindsay Shoop of Charlottesville, Va.; Anna Goodale of Camden, Maine; Elle Logan of Boothbay Harbor, Maine; Anne Cummins of Bellevue, Wash.; Susan Francia of Abington, Pa.; Caroline Lind of Greensboro, N.C.; and Caryn Davies of Ithaca, N.Y.
My daughter was on the crew team in high school with caroline lind at philips academy in andover, ma....she is the sweetest girl....to give you an idea of how big she is....when she met the Governator of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger she was actually taller ....and my daughter was a coxwain....when she was on the national team she had to use a sand bag because there is a minimum weight and she was too small....!!!!...They were mutt and jeff.....