Zoe De Toledo spoke of her pride after steering Britain’s women’s eight to an historic silver medal in the rowing final.
The cox urged her crew to a second place finish behind defending champions the USA in Saturday's race in Rio.
The GB boat was last at the halfway point of the 2000 metre course but surged through to finish in 6 minutes, 3.89 seconds, narrowly ahead of Romania in the bronze medal position.
De Toledo said: "With this group I knew they would keep calm and respond to me. I was confident. I felt some of the crews were doing too much and I knew we had a strong rhythm. I had no doubt we would last the pace and pull through.
"All credit must go to the girls. I just sit there. They kept their heads and executed everything I asked of them."
It was the first time Britain has won a medal in the event. It also completed a remarkable turnaround for Ms De Toledo, who four years ago was questioning whether to continue her rowing career after coxing Oxford to defeat in a disastrous university boat race.