Sarasota rower Clark Dean back in Olympics to check off one more box: Gold at 2024 Games

Sarasota-area residents looking for a rooting interest in the 2024 Summer Olympics need to tune in to the events at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium outside of Paris.

Clark Dean, a Sarasota native and Pine View alum, has been preparing to be an Olympian since he was 11 years old.

In two weeks, the recent Harvard grad will represent the U.S. at the Olympics for a second time – rowing in the Men’s Eight Final on Aug. 3 at 5:10 a.m.

Dean will be the youngest rower on his boat and also the only one with prior Olympic experience.

But even though the 24-year-old has good reason to believe this won’t be his last time competing at the highest level, it’s something he’s not taking for granted.

“Anders Weiss, who was a two-time Olympian at the time, said something (at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo) that really stuck with me,” Dean said of his Olympic debut with the men’s four boat.

“He said, ‘Every year at the Olympics, everyone thinks they’re coming back. Everyone thinks, Oh yeah, I’ll change X, Y and Z and then I’ll come back and I’ll have another go.' Sometimes it can lead to complacency. The opportunity is in front of me to go get a medal, and I’m not gonna look past that.”

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For those who know Dean, his lack of complacency is no surprise.

After trying several sports at a young age, Dean fell in love with rowing and it didn’t take long for many to realize he had a chance to be special.

Clark Dean a rowing phenom

Dean’s parents, Jimmy and Paige, put their four children in a variety of sports growing up, including enrolling them in the Sarasota Sharks swimming program as young as 2 years old.

But Dean’s passion for water sports wasn’t sparked until his mother saw an ad in the newspaper for Sarasota Crew.

He was all-in.

“It was early on, really not too long after he got started, that he was bull-doggedly stubborn about his training,” his father Jimmy Dean said. “He would let nothing get in the way of his training. For instance, he would be in the garage when the feels-like is 105 outside. I’d say, ‘Let’s get a fan and put it on you,’ and he’d say, ‘No. I don’t need that. I want to sweat and I want to work hard.’ ”

That over-achieving work ethic has been ingrained in Dean ever since, and it’s paid off at every step.

He became the first U.S. rower to win the world title in 40 years when he captured the junior men’s singles in 2017 and was named the junior athlete of the year.

Dean graduated from Pine View that following spring and then enrolled at Harvard University.

“By the time I was in eighth grade, I was pretty all-in,” Dean said of his love of rowing. “I think if you asked eighth-grade Clark, he probably would have more confidence than he should have that he would go to the Olympics based on what I had done at that point. From a really young age, I definitely would say I’ve had my sights set on it. As high school continued and it became more and more realistic, it was almost like a rock rolling down a hill.”

He started contributing as a freshman at Harvard and found quick success that led him to take the next fall off to prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This past year, he was named to the Academic All-Ivy League Team before graduating and has spent the past few months qualifying for the Olympics and continuing his training.

Though he’s already achieved so much, he has one more box to check off.

No motivation needed

Dean competed in the Men’s Four in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which took place in 2021 due to COVID-19, and placed fifth.

Now he’s armed with Olympic experience and more drive to finish with a medal.

“You’re in the village and you’re in the dining hall with all of the other teams,” Dean said. “It’s extremely distracting in that aspect. You have free stuff everywhere. You have people around you getting their gold, silver, and bronze medals while you still have four days before you even race.”

Though Dean’s fellow rowers don’t share his Olympic experience, they’re plenty familiar with each other nonetheless.

He’s known all of the rowers in his boat for at least a year, including Christian Tabash and Pieter Quinton, who also rowed at Harvard.

This time around, they have a good idea of what they’re going up against.

COVID-19 prevented competitions ahead of the 2020 Olympics, which resulted in the rowers essentially going in blind, but the Men’s Eight is fresh off a pair of regattas in May.

After failing to qualify for the Olympics at last year’s World Championships, the crew secured a spot with a first-place finish over Italy with a 5:35.97 over two kilometers in the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta on May 21.

A few days later, Dean’s boat raced in the 2024 World Rowing Cup and fell just 0.2 seconds short of Great Britain – last year’s World Champions – in a second-place finish after besting them in the preliminary race.

To ensure they’re properly prepared, Dean and the Men’s Eight have spent the weeks leading up to the Olympics in Urbe, Italy as they’ve attempted to adjust to the time change and keep up their times.

“We definitely have a lot more data points than last cycle, and we definitely take a lot of confidence from that, to stick it to the World Champs and beat them in the heat, and then they had a better race and came back and pipped us by .2 seconds in the final.

“It gives us a lot of confidence that we have what it takes to win, and it’s just gonna be executing it on the day.”

US Men’s Eight rowing watch party

Anyone who wants to watch Dean and his crew take on the Olympic stage can do so from the comfort of their own home or come out to ‘Row For The Gold,’ a free community watch party at Nathan Benderson Park on Saturday, Aug. 3 from 1-4 p.m.

There will be a jumbotron under a tent broadcasting the Men’s Eight final along with a ‘Learn to Row’ clinic, food trucks, a bar car, kid’s lawn games, a steel drum band, and more hosted by Nathan Benderson Park, Sarasota Crew and Jimmy Dean of Michael Saunders & Company Realty.

“It’s almost surreal,” Jimmy Dean said. “It’s a joy beyond joy for his mother and me, and for his siblings. It’s a family celebration the likes of which I’ve never dreamed of. I’ve never dreamed of having a son who would ascend to the highest level of sports, and it’s the second time.

“It’s the thrill of my life, of course, to see him make his dreams come true.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 2024 Olympics: Sarasota's Clark Dean to row for Team USA in Paris Games