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How the US Men's rowing team won gold and used Jason Kelce for inspiration

It was a very historic medal

United States' Liam Corrigan, from left, Michael Grady, Justin Best...
United States' Liam Corrigan, from left, Michael Grady, Justin Best and Nick Mead celebrate goldLAPRESSE
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The USA Men's rowing team won an incredibly historic gold medal this week at the Paris 2024 Olympics as it was the country's first gold in rowing since 1960.

Before the four rowers took to the waters of the Seine, they actually turned to a motivational speech from former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce, brother of Travis Kelce.

Kylie Kelce shares footage of an exhausted Jason Kelce after a day of Olympic activities

Kelce delivered the very memorable and sweary address during the Eagles' Super Bowl victory parade in 2018 from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

He spent a part of the speech talking about how the Eagles were considered "a bunch of underdogs."

"You know what an underdog is? It's a hungry dog," Kelce said, later highlighting, "Bottom line is, we wanted it more. . . . Everybody wanted it more. And that's why we're up here today."

Justin Best, part of the US rowing team, told PEOPLE that the athletes listened to the speech before their race on July 28, which earned them a spot in their August 1 final.

Best was there

"I was at the speech when it happened . . . I was right in front of the Art Museum and that resonated with me because that team was not supposed to win," Best, who is from Pennsylvania, says.

"Tom Brady was supposed to win with the big bad [New England] Patriots."

Best also explained that in Kelce's speech, the now-retired football player "kind of went down a list of like, 'This guy isn't this, you know, they say he's too small."

Best went for something similar: "There's some people out there that said, 'Oh, New Zealand's gonna win' or 'Great Britain's gonna win' or 'Australia is gonna take the gold.' We showed that speech kind of before the race. And we could see ourselves like: 'Nick Mead, he's too big,' you know, like, 'I'm too small' or things like that. . . . We kind of resonated with that and said, 'You know what, we're gonna adopt that hungry dog mentality.' "

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