Michael Grady and his three boatmates represent Team USA won gold in the men’s coxless four this month during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was the team’s second Olympic competition and the first time the United States won gold in the event since 1960.

Grady, 27, grew up in the North Allegheny School District but graduated from Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic High School in 2015, where he began rowing. Grady spoke with WESA’s Glynis Board about winning, the sport and the mentality of an Olympian.

Her conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Michael Grady: I grew up pretty athletic. My parents joked that I was born with six-pack abs. I tried every sport that was offered to me. I wanted to try everything and find something I didn’t want to give up. And I thought I had done it with lacrosse and football. Hitting people was fun, but I hit some people a little too hard. And that’s kind of a little scary. So when I was 40, my dad decided to take up rowing. He said I should give it a try. I decided to try out for the Central Catholic rowing team and have never looked back.

Glynis Board: There are three rivers in Pittsburgh, but it seems like these rivers are not always calm enough for rowing. What are the conditions like?

Grady: Because it’s an outdoor sport, like any body of water, it can be a little fickle at times. Whether it’s windy or raining really hard – Pittsburgh sometimes rains a lot – that increases what’s called “flow,” which is the amount of water in cubic meters per second. And when that happens, it’s obviously a little harder to find a good spot to row, but I’ve never really had much of a problem with it.

Central Catholic rowed out of the boathouse in Millville right next to Washington’s Landing. And there were a couple of times when we flooded and there were times when we couldn’t really row on the Allegheny. So we would put our boats on a trailer and what we do is called a wet start, where you have to wade into the water, put your boat in and jump in the boat. And we did that when it was, you know, really cold, you know, like March or something. Yeah, it’s not always a nice lifestyle.

Plank: So tell us a little bit about your experience in Paris. Tell us about the race. What were the conditions like on the water and what were the conditions like in your head?

Grady: That was probably the fairest race there could be because it was what we call almost neutral conditions where it was maybe a little bit windy but not enough to really make a difference. I think we were also lucky with the hot day in terms of conditions but I had a pretty clear head. It’s my second Olympics. I knew I could rely on everything I’d done in training, I could trust my boatmates. Still, there is some nervousness but it’s good to suppress that nervousness. So, yeah, that’s pretty normal at this point in my career. 13 years later, I’m rowing now.

Plank: When did you know you had won?

Grady: When I crossed the finish line, of course. But I had a good feeling when there were 600 m to go. New Zealand was getting closer to us, so to speak. But I knew we still had a gear to go, maybe even two. So, of course, they made a big push there. And we reacted and set off again straight away. And when we set off again, I knew it was set in stone. That I would, you know, become Olympic champion.

Plank: Can you tell me a little bit about what it’s like rowing with three other people? I mean, how do you cope without a coxswain in charge?

Grady: It takes a little bit more trust and a little bit of a discussion about how to communicate. So we have a set of key phrases, 1 or 2 syllables, maybe 1 or 2 words that describe an action or feeling that we’re going for.

I talk a lot during the race and I sit right behind Liam, who sets the rhythm, and the guys behind me can hear it because I can speak loudly, so to speak. But really everyone communicates in some way and just says, “Hey, I’ll be right with you. Everything is fine.” I just provide reassurance. But I do a lot of the race planning and the technical aspects.

Plank: So you said you do a lot of different sports. How does rowing compare? How satisfied are you with being part of a team compared to other team sports?

Grady: Rowing is the ultimate team sport. Because there are no individual stats. Like a lot of sports, there’s stroke average, hitting percentage, whether it’s in basketball or how many goals you score in soccer or how many touchdowns you throw in football. There are so many individual stats that you can measure. But in rowing, you’re in a boat and you get one thing, which is your placing time. So, did you win the race or not? Were you really fast that day or were you pretty slow? So it kind of increases the level of community and synchronicity between you and your teammates. You know, these guys are not my brothers, but the three guys in that boat are my brothers from now on forever.

Plank: At your level, after more than ten years of rowing, do you ever catch a crab? Perhaps you can explain what that is.

Grady: Catching a crab. That’s what happens when you row, and because you have these oars with levers on the ends that have a lot of surface area, if it gets caught in the water, it can get carried away by the force of the water and the momentum of the boat. And suddenly it tries to touch the bottom of the body of water you’re on. The oar gets driven into your body pretty quickly. And you can be thrown out of the boat. I’ve seen people knocked out by it.

Just this year, I actually caught a crab. I just wasn’t paying attention. Then a big wave came and my oar just got pulled under the water and I caught a crab. And it was like, wow. You know, I’m, what, eight months before the Olympics? And I just got hit in the head with my oar. I haven’t done that since high school. So yeah, it definitely happens. It happens to the best of us.

Plank: You know, you’ve accomplished something here that you’ve worked so hard for. Do you have any advice for other people out there who are trying to do difficult things?

Grady: Yes. It’s okay to admit defeat sometimes, but it’s really important to never mentally defeat yourself before starting the activity.

I kind of made a joke this summer that turned out not to be a joke at all. But I would go to my teammates and say, “Stay positive, stay energized,” I would just try to cheer my teammates up no matter what the situation was and make them smile. And I was just kind of a, frankly, overly positive person. I would say keep the energy up even if I was in a bad mood or didn’t want to go to practice. But as soon as I said it, a switch flipped and then it was like, OK, I really want to do this. I’m ready to practice today. I’m ready for the positivity. I’m ready to travel. I’m ready to do the stuff that really sucks.

So the key lies in the mental attitude towards life.