The next time Liam Corrigan returns home to Old Lyme, where his rowing career began, he’ll have a gold medal to show off.

Corrigan and his United States men’s four teammates Michael Grady, Justin Best and Nick Mead won their event in the Paris Olympics on Thursday.

They seized the lead early on, stayed in front and held off runner-up New Zealand, finishing the 2,000 meter race in 5 minutes, 49:03 seconds, to earn the country’s first gold medal in men’s four since 1960. New Zealand crossed the line in 5:49.88 to take silver and Great Britain won the bronze in 5:52.42.

“It’s literally unbelievable,” Corrigan told the Associated Press. “I crossed the line, I thought I was going to have some kind of celebration but I was just in disbelief, like my hands were on my head. It was just crazy.”

Corrigan, a two-time Olympian, graduated from Old Lyme High School in 2015 and trained with the Blood Street Sculls, a local club. While at Harvard, he competed in the historic Harvard-Yale regatta on The Thames River.

He talked about his strong connection to the Old Lyme community prior to leaving for Paris.

“I learned to row literally for our public high school team,” Corrigan said. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have that and the club there, Blood Street Sculls. … The club has been hugely supportive of me just in general. It’s really an incredible community.

“I’m very much still in touch. I probably go back three or four times a year, more often than not I’ll go for a row on Rogers Lake. I’ve watched some of the high school practices and things like that. So it’s really nice to have that to come back to.”

His gold medal victory created a celebratory wake that reached the Blood Street Sculls’ boathouse in Old Lyme where local rowers gathered to watch the race Thursday morning.

“We had a whole bunch of people at the boathouse this morning, all the junior team and some masters were over there,” said Paul Fuchs, the director of rowing at Blood Street Sculls, on Thursday. “There was definitely a little excitement in the room. It’s pretty cool.

“It’s monumental, really. They haven’t won that race practically since I was born. It’s impressive.”

Lou Zubek also was thrilled for Corrigan on Thursday.

As Corrigan’s junior varsity basketball coach at Old Lyme, Zubek encouraged him to give rowing a try.

Corrigan joined the rowing program that Zubek also coached, and the rest is history.

Zubek had faith that Corrigan and his crew would pull out the win after the U.S. team took an early lead.

“Liam being in the stroke seat, he’s in control of the cadence and the stroke rate,” said Zubek, who’s now the principal at Griswold Middle School. “I just knew that he wouldn’t let anyone pass them. But you’re still nervous the whole time. As they came across at the end, just winning gold, me and my son were both jumping up and down and screaming.

“I’m unbelievably happy for Liam and that boat because I can’t even imagine how much time and effort have gone into that. To put your whole life on hold to train for the Olympics is another level of dedication. That fact that Liam got a gold medal in the Olympics, there’s no other achievement in sports that’s better than that.”

Corrigan’s Olympic win added to his impressive rowing resume. He had a good feeling about the U.S. team’s gold medal chances prior to the Olympics. The quartet finished second in the 2023 World Championships in Serbia, just behind powerhouse Great Britain.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Corrigan came agonizingly close to winning a medal as part of the men’s eight, finishing fourth. Austin Hack of Old Lyme also was in the boat.

Corrigan headed to Paris determined to win a medal in what could be his final Olympic appearance.

“We were close,” Corrigan said about the Tokyo race. “We were a second off second and third basically and two seconds off first, which in rowing is close enough where you think like there’s a couple of things we could have done a little differently that maybe you could have closed that gap.

“Now it’s like, all right, I’ve been to the Olympics, great. Now let’s go and win. And that’s the mentality certainly everyone in our boat has right now.”

Mission accomplished for Corrigan, 26, and his teammates.

Corrigan’s gold medal victory will impact the local rowing scene.

“He’s a huge role model,” Fuchs said. “It’s hard to say that we’ll build off of it, but it definitely creates enthusiasm. The kids that are standing in front of me today are not Olympians, but that doesn’t mean that doesn’t motivate them to know that somebody from their school, their club, reached that level, that potential. I think it’s very positive.”

Chances are Corrigan will stop by the boathouse during a post-Olympic visit to Old Lyme. His parents live in the area.

“He won’t be able to do anything else,” Fuchs said with a laugh. “He’ll have to come by. … This is awesome. The guy has just been extraordinary through his whole career. Whether it’s in school or in sports, he’s just been extraordinary.”

g.keefe@theday.com

Editor’s note: This version corrects the order the team members’ names in the caption for the photo of the team members in the boat.