For Roman, the wait pays off

When former Washington State rower Lisa Roman returned to Pullman in September 2019 — seven years after graduation — to be inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, she seemed on the brink of transition.

She would be married the next weekend, and she planned to conclude her rowing career for Team Canada in summer 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Then I’ll start my real life,” she joked, according to WSU rowing coach Jane LaRiviere.

Not so fast.

The coronavirus pandemic, of course, began a few months later and the Olympics eventually were kicked to this year. Roman decided to stay the course, resume her rigorous training regimen — it’s essentially her job — and postpone “real life” for a year.

Now, she has a gold medal to show for it.

As the bow for the Canadian women’s eight crew, Roman was the first person to cross the finish line Friday in her country’s stunning victory at Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay. It was Canada’s first gold in the event since 1992.

“It was pretty epic,” LaRiviere said by phone Saturday, a day after watching the race from afar. “Canada just blasted out to a lead, and they never relinquished it.”

It was a matter of peaking at the right moment, because Canada had settled for second to New Zealand in Heat 1 and second to Romania in the repechage. In the final, Canada won in 5 minutes, 59.13 seconds and was followed by New Zealand in 6:00.04 and China in 6:01.21.

“We worked so hard and trusted each other,” Roman said on the Olympics website. “We knew we could do it if we put it on the line today, and that’s what we did. It’s amazing. It’s a great feeling.”

It was a grand culmination for Roman, 31, who graduated from WSU in psychology in 2012 and has spent almost a decade rowing for Canada and pursuing Olympic gold.

“It’s the pinnacle of what you can do in rowing,” said LaRiviere, the Cougars’ 19th-year coach and herself a Canadian. “There’s no higher goal you can have, and it’s really cool that those nine ladies (including the spare) reached the ultimate goal.”

Two other former WSU rowers were members of the Canadian training team. Nicole Hare competed for the four crew, which placed 10th in Tokyo, and Ivy Ella Quaintance was named a spare.

“Hearing reports from all three of them, they had a great training group,” LaRiviere said. “They had each other’s backs and they were getting along really well, but it was grueling.”

Roman, who grew up in British Columbia and now lives in London, Ontario, was a figure skater for 14 years before switching to rowing as she grew taller. (Now at 5-foot-10, she’s on the short side for a rower).

“I fell in love with rowing because all I had to do was sit in a boat and pull on an oar and do the same thing over and over again,” she said on the Olympic site. “At the beginning of my rowing career, in comparison to figure skating, it seemed so easy and I was never nervous like I was when I got onto the ice by myself and had to perform. Rowing is just raw. The harder you go, the faster you can go. I loved the ‘Go harder and go faster’ aspect of rowing when I first started.”

She competed for WSU for three years after transferring from Fraser Valley, and was named a second-team All-American as a senior. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she helped Canada to fifth in the coxed eight.

“She’s just tenacious,” LaRiviere said. As a collegian, “she had an incredible ability to have perspective. If things weren’t going her way or she lost a seat race or something wasn’t quite right, she doubled down. Some kids, if they lose a seat race or something’s not going their way, they spend a few minutes kinda moaning about it and they potentially miss opportunities. But she just never did that.”

Roman is thought to be the first Cougar woman to claim Olympic gold in rowing. Paul Enquist, who competed for the now-defunct WSU men’s program, took gold in double sculls in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

“I’m just thrilled for our team,” LaRiviere said, “because anytime somebody does something for a first time, it becomes much more of a reality when people start dreaming: ‘We have one of our own.’ It changes people’s ability to set goals.”

Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.