Article by Rob Harris, courtesy of The Age.
Paris: Australian rowers Jess Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre have paid tribute to mining magnate Gina Rinehart after they clinched their country’s first rowing medal at Paris 2024, winning bronze in the women’s pairs.
The duo, who won gold in the women’s four in Tokyo, were embraced by one of the world’s richest women after the medal ceremony on Friday morning (Paris time) at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, having had a silver snatched from their grasp in the dying seconds of the race.
Rinehart has been prominent on the sidelines at the Games, often dressed in white, wearing a green and gold silk scarf, with Panama hat and sunglasses and clutching a giant stuffed toy boxing kangaroo.
She has a relationship with Rowing Australia, through her company Hancock Prospecting, which dates back to 2015. The organisation’s official patron, she recently extended her sponsorship through to the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
A sponsor of the Australian Olympic Committee for these Games, the 70-year-old daughter of the late iron ore magnate Lang Hancock has ploughed up to $80 million into Olympic sports and athletes in swimming, rowing, volleyball and artistic swimming, since the 2012 Games in London.
“To be able to be supported, to be able to almost pursue this sport like it’s a professional job, is really important,” said McIntyre, who hails from Rinehart’s home state of Western Australia.
“You’ve seen changes in the performance of the whole team over the last couple of cycles … We’ve won so many more medals with her support. It’s really amazing for us to be able to have that.”
Morrison said it was one of many conversations they’d had with Rinehart, who visited the rowing team in July in Europe where they were training ahead of a World Cup regatta.
“It’s just always so lovely that she makes an effort to be here for us on these special days, and was really a part of the experience,” Morrison said. “She doesn’t watch from afar, she’s really in it with us.”
Rinehart’s involvement in sport sponsorship has also been controversial. In 2022, she withdrew a $15 million sponsorship from Netball Australia after Indigenous player Donnell Wallam asked for her uniform not to have the Hancock Prospecting logo, over racist comments made by Rinehart’s father decades ago.
Rinehart later said it was unnecessary for sports organisations to be used as the vehicle for social or political causes. Earlier this year it was revealed by this masthead that star swimmer Kyle Chalmers had campaigned on Rinehart’s behalf to have a portrait of her by Archibald Prize-winning Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira taken down at the National Gallery because she did not like it.
The Australian rowers finished behind dominant Dutch world champions Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester, with Romanians Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel taking silver.
Australia appeared destined for silver for much of the final, but they were overtaken by Romania about 100m before the finish, missing second spot by 0.57 seconds.
The bronze medal offers redemption for Morrison and McIntyre after missing the pair final altogether in Tokyo. They were attempting a rare feat in Olympic rowing, winning medals in two different boat classes at a Games, and achieved their first goal with gold in the four.
But because of a tropical storm, Tokyo organisers rescheduled racing which meant the pair only had two hours between the final of the four and the semi-final of the pair, rather than the expected 24 hours.
“You know, it’s always tough get pipped on the line, but we’re really proud of our performance,” McIntyre said. “We put everything out there today. Couldn’t have done much better.”
