With Olympic gold in rearview, Canada's women's eight rowing crew resets for worlds

Just over a year after its surprise gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Canada's women's eight rowing team is set to begin the process anew.

Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski is one of four returning gold medallists slated to compete at the upcoming world championships, but she said the Olympics are firmly in the rearview mirror.

"Being an Olympian, an Olympic champion, is something that nobody can take away from us in that boat and that result on that day," Gruchalla-Wesierski said.

"But now we're just looking towards something new and it's a pretty cool thing that we accomplished, but we're just trying to create more of a legacy moving forward for Canadian rowing."

The 2022 rowing world championships begin Sunday in the Czech Republic. Heats for the women's eight begin Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. ET, with the gold-medal final closing out the event next Sunday at 9 a.m. ET.

Gruchalla-Wesierski, the 31-year-old from Calgary, added that she neither feels relief nor added stress entering the competition as reigning Olympic champions.

"Not really pressure from that, just like the normal pressure that we put on ourselves around racing. That never changes no matter the event."

But while the pressure may be firmly intact, the stakes are relatively low. These world championships, while a major event unto themselves, don't hold any bearing on Olympic qualification. That happens at next year's worlds.

The goal in the Czech Republic, beyond reaching the podium, is to establish chemistry with the new members of the team. They recently earned silver at a World Cup event in Switzerland.

"We're just trying to be the best as a unit and push in the right direction as one boat. I mean there's nine moving parts, but it's one result and it's whose bow ball