Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020: Flash Quotes 8.29.2021

Flash Quotes

Friday: 8.28.2021

Dani Hansen

PR3 Mixed Four with Coxswain

"It feels good. It's an accomplishment to bring back a medal for the U.S. We're really pumped, we put a lot into this. The one thing you can do when you come here, despite the past, is put everything you can on the water and if you're capable of doing that you feel proud of yourself. I think all of us did that today and I'm really proud of us as a team. I think we did really well."

Karen Petrik

PR3 Mixed Four with Coxswain

"I think we executed what we wanted to do and I think we put together everything we set out to do."

Russell Gernaat

PR2 Mixed Double Sculls

"We wanted to get a good start and unfortunately we didn't. I think the first five strokes or so were pretty good, but I know our oars god caught—it stopped the boat. So then we were like alright catch up mode so put the power on real quick for the boat moving. And then it became let's just stick with the pack and see if we can put something together at the end of the race where we can make a surge and pick off a couple of boats at the end. We would've liked to have done a move more in the middle of the course, but it was a great race It was a lot of fun."

"The field has grown in depth...It's a packed field, a lot of competition. Brazil and Australia beat us by like 20 seconds [at the 2019 world championships], but not today, not yesterday. We've really closed that gap. So I feel good about our racing overall, we've come a long way and still looking for more improvement."

"I definitely want to go to France [for the 2024 Paralympic Games] and see if we can put a bid in for a medal. I know what that takes, it's going to take a lot of crazy training. A year ago I said if we can't hold a 2:05 [split] on the water, we're not making the a final and we did a 2:06 yesterday. So I think in France if you're not close to a 2:00 on the water, you're not going to the A final. So that's the goal."

Laura Goodkind

PR2 Mixed Double Sculls

"We had a great race and are proud to have been a part of an amazing pack. Thank you to all of our supporters."