Olympic gold, marriage proposal on live TV. Justin Best had quite a summer — all in a week
Gold for him, a diamond for her, all in one week. This is life for Justin Best.
The Kennett Square native and Drexel University alum won a gold medal in rowing at the Paris Olympics, the first time the U.S. had won gold in the Men’s Four event since 1960. In true Philly fashion, Best was on the dock moments after the race yelling, “Go Birds!”
As you’d expect from any avid Eagles fan who also helped to be a world-elite athlete, Best says his team of rowers watched the Jason Kelce speech at the Birds’ Super Bowl LII parade as motivation.
“We took bits and pieces from that speech and applied it to our crew,” says Best. They, like the Eagles that year, were motivated by the thought that nobody believed in them, an that the U.S. had prioritized its Men’s 8 boat. Many thought New Zealand, which came in second, had focused on its Men’s 4 boat and would take home gold.
Hard road to gold
The road to gold for Best was not easy. He came just 1.02 seconds short of a medal in the Men’s 8 category at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. A recording of the race resided on his laptop, and he would watch it for motivation whenever he felt exhausted from training.
“Yeah, you’re tired now,” Best would tell himself, “but do you want to feel like that again?”
His teammates were in the same boat, no pun intended. They all left Tokyo with either fourth- or fifth-place finishes in their respective events. However, after three years of training, they claimed gold by 0.85 seconds.
“It’s definitely something you have to wrap your head around, you’re fighting for fractions of a second, and there’s not really many open-water wins in the Olympics,” says Best.
Another major milestone
Just four days after winning gold, Best reached another major milestone in his life, in style, proposing to marry his girlfriend, Lainey Duncan. The proposal — made in front of the Eiffel Tower — received a little help from the messaging platform Snapchat.
Snapchat had reached out to Best because he and Duncan had one of the longest “streaks” on the platform. A Snapchat “streak” tracks how many days in a row two people have messaged each other on the app. Best and Duncan had messaged each other on 2,738 consecutive days — more than 7 years at the time of his proposal.
To visualize this incredibly long streak, Snapchat wanted to provide 2,738 yellow roses for Best to present to Duncan on the day of the proposal. Best loved the idea, but he did not expect his proposal to air live on national TV.
“They were originally going to record it, get footage, and then we’ll [show] it on the Today Show,” Best says, “and then they messaged me probably the week before like, ‘No, the Today Show wants to do it live.’ ”
After approval from Duncan’s mother, Best agreed to the change, and the proposal aired on live TV Aug. 5.
“Lainey Olivia Duncan, you are the love of my life,” said Best. “You have been with me since day one … Lainey, Will you marry me?”
Without hesitation, Duncan said yes, and Best placed a ring on her finger.
“This is the best day of my life,” said Duncan.
An uneven Olympic experience
As productive as his Olympic experience was, there were some hiccups. Best was not able to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which took place on the Seine River in Paris, because it conflicted with the first heat of his event the next day.
“[The ceremony is] six hours of standing and you don’t get back to the village until 1 a.m., which is not great for, like, performance.”
Best also said it took a few days for the Olympic Village struggled to meet the food needs of a ravenous bunch of Olympians.
“I don’t know how, they didn’t anticipate how much athletes eat,” said Best. After a few days, and some feedback, “They got on their jam and fixed it.”
“Other than that, the village was really cool,” said Best.
Best said he met a handful of Olympic legends, such as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and Ilona Maher. Ledecky was in the green room with him the day he proposed to his girlfriend.
“I’m just sitting there, sweating bullets, Lainey’s right next to me, and I’m like, ‘So Katie how was your race?’ ” said Best.
Best was able to attend the closing ceremony. A boatmate, Nick Mead, another Pennsylvania native, was one of the flag bearers for the closing ceremony.
“That was so special,” said Best. “[Nick’s] the humblest guy you will meet.”
And that wasn’t even the end of Best’s best summer ever. He spent the next two weeks traveling in Europe before returning to the U.S.
