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GREENSBORO — For a few precious minutes, Caroline Lind’s Thursday was just like the rest of ours: a quick trip to a Battleground Avenue drug store to buy shampoo from an unsuspecting clerk before driving home in anonymity.

Then came the ceremony by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. And the special dinner at Greensboro Country Club in her honor.

By day’s end it seemed like everyone knew Greensboro’s latest, greatest Olympic gold medalist was back home.

Radio stations were calling. Friends were dropping by. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to congratulate Lind — oh, and check out the medal, too.

“It’s the first thing they ask about,” said Lind. “They want to hold it, feel it, see how heavy it is, I guess.”

It’s been a wild two weeks since Lind helped the United States women’s eight win their first Olympic gold medal in 24 years.

But most of that time was spent roaming the Olympic Village in Beijing — a place teeming with athletes and their Olympic bling.

But Greensboro is a little different.

“People connect my face with the Olympics,” she said. “I met a woman yesterday who told me she watched the race with her 7-year-old grandson. That was kind of cool.”

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com