Hellen Glover’s bid to become the first woman to win three Olympic gold medals for Great Britain came up agonisingly short as the women's rowing team were pipped to the title by the Netherlands.
At 38, and having twice previously retired from the sport, mother-of-three Glover’s legacy as a GB Olympic great was already cemented following gold-medal success at London 2012 and in Rio four years later.
But there was a sense that the quartet of Glover, Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten were the favourites for this event in Paris.
Instead, it proved almost a reverse of Wednesday’s dramatic finish in the water, when GB women’s quadruple scullers edged the Dutch to gold right at the finish.
"We put it all out there," said Glover. "We raced the plan we wanted to race, we raced together. We raced with so much heart and I think there can't be regret at looking back and not thinking you did all you can."
Glover was the first mother to row for Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
She has paved the way for others, including Hodgkins-Byrne, who produced a stirring performance alongside Wilde to take bronze in the women's doubles sculls.
Hodgkins-Byrne took time away after Tokyo 2020 to give birth to son Freddie, while Wilde has an inspiring story of her own having started out as a swimmer who only switched sports in 2017.
The Olympics is just her third international event after needing surgery on her forearms last September, but just 10 months on, and having only recently teamed up with Hodgkins-Byrne, the pair earned a surprise spot on the podium behind champions New Zealand and silver medallists Romania.
The men's four of Wilkes, Ambler, Aldridge and Davidson followed up with another bronze to bring GB's total to four rowing medals in Paris, already one more than they managed at Tokyo 2020.
Team Ireland's Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle also won bronze in the men's double sculls.
