The U.S. women’s eight goes into the 2020 Olympics as the three-time defending gold medalist. The boat also goes to the Tokyo Games as the world bronze medalist, looking its most vulnerable in a decade.
New Zealand, which has never earned an Olympic women’s eight medal, won the world title by 2.72 seconds in Austria on Sunday. The U.S. was 5.02 seconds behind in third after six minutes of racing over 2,000 meters.
The Americans won all 11 Olympic and world titles between 2006 and 2016. That streak was snapped in 2017, when the U.S. took fourth in a reset year with three members of the Rio Olympic eight team returning.