One of Britain’s latest Paris golden girls has tearfully revealed how her tragic father presented her with the teenage diary in which she vowed to become an Olympic champion – a promise she today fulfilled.
Lola Anderson was part of the Team GB women’s quadruple sculls crew claiming gold in a dramatic race to the line with the Netherlands this morning, alongside team-mates Hannah Scott, Georgie Brayshaw and Lauren Henry.
Anderson, 26, burst in tears after crossing the finishing line just 0.15 seconds ahead of the silver medallists, taking victory in a photo finish.
And she then revealed how much it meant to her – having vowed as a 14-year-old that she would one day win Olympic gold after being inspired by London 2012.
She later threw away the diary, thinking it embarrassing – only for her father to reclaim it from the bin and later hand it over to her when on his deathbed.
Lola Anderson (left) broke down in tears as she told of how her late father kept a teenage diary in which she had vowed to become an Olympic champion
Team GB’s exhausted yet triumphant women’s quadruple sculls team took gold today in a dramatic photo finish end to their race, edging just ahead of their Dutch rivals
Britain’s first women’s quadruple sculls Olympic gold was celebrated today by (left to right) Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson, Lauren Henry and Georgina Brayshaw
Lola Anderson (left, with Hannah Scott next to her) wept after crossing the finishing line 0.15 seconds ahead of the Netherlands team who had to settle for silver
Wiping away tears after today’s victory, Lola said: ‘I’d forgotten about it obviously but a couple of years ago my dad reminded me and I know that he’d be so, so proud.
‘I’m just thinking a lot about him right now and it’s lovely.’
She told the BBC: ‘Sorry, it just feels like ages you’ve been working towards this.
‘We’re always very process-driven, just looking to what comes next, but when you kind of get to the end of a cycle like this and it doesn’t get bigger than this.
‘It’s really quite overwhelming to just experience this and I’m really grateful.’
She revealed earlier this month how she had written as a teenager: ‘I think it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics in rowing and if possible win a gold for GB.’
Lola recalled: ‘Teenage girls don’t necessarily have the most belief in ourselves and I got very embarrassed.
‘I kinda thought, “That was a really cocky, arrogant thing to have written”.
The British team competing at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Centre in Vaires-sur-Marne were (left to right) Georgina Brayshaw, Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott and Lauren Henry
Lola told the BBC afterwards how she had been thinking of her late father Don
A photo finish was required to determine the winners with Team GB crossing the finish first
There was British delight and Dutch devastation when the final result was confirmed
‘Back then, on a good day I wasn’t capsizing – I ripped the page out and threw it in the bin.’
But she was reunited with it in October 2019 when her father Don asked her to get his safety deposit box, two months before his death from cancer.
She said: ‘It went straight over my head, I did as I was told.
‘When I gave it back to him he then gave something back to me, which was that diary page.
‘He’d obviously been cleaning out my little waste paper basket, seen this diary in the bin and decided he was going to give it back to me one day when it meant something, either as a silly joke or something with real meaning.
‘He was a very positive man – it reflects to me how much he cared, invested and believed in me and my siblings, even when we couldn’t see it.
‘There was nothing to show I had any talent when I first started rowing but he kept the note and chose to believe.’
Lola Anderson, pictured in a post on her Instagram page, has told of how she dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion as a teenager yet felt embarrassed by her diary entry
Lola Anderson (right) was delighted to clinch victory though became tearful when interviewed
The triumphant British team are seen being congratulated by Germany’s bronze medallists
Anderson (right) struggled to contain her emotions before paying tribute to her late father
She told the BBC: ‘It’s really quite overwhelming to just experience this and I’m really grateful’
Lola Anderson, 26, was speaking alongside team-mate Hannah Scott (right), 25
The same four who today previously clinched Rowing World Championships gold in their women’s quadruple sculls last October in the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Self-professed ‘Swiftie’ Anderson can now set her sights on going to see her favourite singer alongside team-mate Scott.
She said ahead of the Olympics: ‘I’m a big Taylor Swift fan, and Hannah and I are going to see her when we get back from the Games.
‘I’m very excited, but I need to sort my outfit – we always sing Bejeweled, so something sparkly would be good.’
