I heard an amazing fact about the three Dutch women who pushed the "Three Brit Blondes In a Boat" to within a point before the medal race:
They had not raced together before the Olympics. The Dutch Sailing team had nine different sailors compete for spots and didn’t select the 3 crew until a month before the games. The three selected had not sailed together before. They had 3 weeks practice and their first race was Race 1 of the Olympics.
It was tragic that the US didn’t medal but maybe the Dutch natural sele
ction approach, ruthless though it is worked.