From New Canaan High School to the greatest competition on earth, Charlie Cole has come a long way to the 2012 Olympics in London and his hard work has paid off.
Cole, 25, along with his U.S. Men's Four rowing crew, landed the bronze medal Saturday in the four with his team - the first for the U.S. since 1992, according to the US Rowing website.
“Certainly I think people have to be excited about the work we’ve put in,” said Cole. “We put in a lot of hard work since last year. We’re young guys and we have a lot to look forward to and we’ll have to think about and reflect on our performance and let the dust settle. But we have a lot to be confident about, and hopefully, a lot to look forward to in our rowing careers," reported US Rowing.
The U.S., which finished at 6:07.20 was beat out by Great Britain, taking gold at 6:03.97, and Australia, taking silver at 6:05.19, according to US Rowing.
Original Story
Two Connecticut residents are headed to the finals in their respective sports this week with hopes of bringing home a medal.
Donn Cabral of Glastonbury qualified for the Olympic 3,000-meter steeplechase finals on Sunday, running an 8 minute, 21 second race and finishing fourth in the third qualifying heat Friday.
Cabral finished the 16-runner heat with a time of 8:21.46 after having led the field at the 1,000 and 2,000-meter intervals of the race. Ethiopia's Roba Gari passed Cabral in the third interval of the race, finishing in first place with a time of 8:20.68.
There were three heats of 13 racers each; the top 15 qualifying times across all three heats would qualify for Sunday's final, which is scheduled for 4:25 p.m.
Charlie Cole of New Canaan and his rowing teammates will also have a chance to win an Olympic medal after
Cole and his teammates — Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia) — are scheduled to race on Saturday at 5:30 a.m.
Cole reportedly got his start in rowing at Norwalk's Maritime Rowing Club during his freshman year at NCHS in 1999..
"Rowing in New Canaan was just starting then, so the program wasn't very developed, but I thought I would try it out," Cole said in a recent report in the CT Post. "It took a long time before I realized I could be decent."
New Canaan is once again on the map with another medal winning Olympian; following in the footsteps of the great decathlete from 1968 Bill Toomey, and the awesome woman’s hockey player from the 1998 Olympic team, AJ Mleczko, both of whom were profiled here on Patch recently. This is a really impressive win and what struck me as very interesting is that it appears Charlie only took up rowing in high school, after participating in other sports. Hope to see you back in New Canaan real soon Charlie!!