Rowing events at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will take place July 23-30 at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Japan.
The U.S. will have nine crews competing including the women's single sculls, women's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls, women's quadruple sculls, women's pair, men's four, women's four, men's eight and women's eight.
Click here for the full schedule on the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 website.Men's Crews
Men's Four (M4-)
The men's four crew of Clark Dean (Sarasota, Fla./Harvard University), Michael Grady (Pittsburgh, Pa./Cornell University), Anders Weiss (Barrington, R.I./Brown University) and Andrew Reed (Wayland, Mass./Harvard University) will be looking to improve on a seventh-place finish from the U.S. boat at the 2016 Olympic Games. Weiss is a two-time Olympian, having raced in the men's pair in Rio. Dean, Grady and Reed are all first-time Olympians.
Dean and Reed were part of the men's four that finished fifth at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, qualifying the boat for Tokyo. Poland, Romania and Great Britain took the top three spots in 2019, while Great Britain, South Africa and Romania won the medals at the 2021 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne.
The U.S. has competed in the event at 19 previous Olympic Games. The last gold medal came in 1960.
Men's Eight (M8+)
The U.S. boat of coxswain Julian Venonsky (Malvern, Pa./University of California, Berkeley), Liam Corrigan (Old Lyme, Conn./Harvard University), Conor Harrity (Weston, Mass./Harvard University), Nick Mead (Strafford, Pa./Princeton University), Alexander Richards (Watertown, Mass./Harvard University), Austin Hack (Old Lyme, Conn./Stanford University), Alex Miklasevich (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brown University), Justin Best (Kennett Square, Pa./Drexel University), and Ben Davison (Inverness, Fla./University of Washington) includes one member of the 2016 crew that finished fourth in Rio -- Austin Hack. The remaining crew members are all racing at their first Olympic Games.
The U.S. finished fifth at the 2019 World Rowing Championships to earn a spot in Tokyo. Venonsky and five rowers return from that boat, while Best, Miklasevich and Corrigan are all making their senior team debuts. Germany, The Netherlands and Great Britain won the medals in 2019. At this year's world cup race in Lucerne, the British crew bested the Germans by a bow ball to win gold.
The U.S. has had a men's eight in competition since the inception of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. The U.S. last won the event in 2004 in Athens.
Women's Crews
Women's Single Sculls (W1x)
Two-time Olympian Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley), who won a bronze medal as part of the women's quadruple sculls in 2012 in London, switched to the single in 2017 and quickly made her mark. Kohler won a bronze medal in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and followed that up with a silver-medal performance at the 2021 World Rowing Cup II race in Lucerne.
Ireland's Sanita Puspure is the defending world champion (2019) in the event, while New Zealand's Emma Twigg is the reigning silver medalist. Russia's Hannah Prakhatsen, the 2021 European Champion, won the world cup race in Lucerne ahead of Kohler and Puspure.
Gevvie Stone, who is racing in the women's double sculls in Tokyo, won the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics.
Women's Pair (W2-)
Four time Olympian Megan Kalmoe (St. Croix Falls, Wis./University of Washington) will be racing with two-time Olympian Tracy Eisser (Fair Lawn, N.J./Cornell University) in the pair in Tokyo. Kalmoe won a bronze medal in the quadruple sculls at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and the duo raced together as part of the women's quadruple sculls in Rio.
In the pair, Eisser and Kalmoe won silver at the 2017 World Rowing Championships and finished fourth in 2019, qualifying the boat for this year's Games. New Zealand, Australia and Canada earned the medals at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. None of those four crews raced at the 2021 World Rowing Cup II race in Lucerne, where Spain, Ireland and Romania brought home the hardware.
The U.S. finished fourth in the event in both Rio and London, last winning a medal in 2000 in Sydney.
Women's Double Sculls (W2x)
Three-time Olympian Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass/Princeton University) will be racing with Kristi Wagner (Weston, Mass./Yale University) in the women's double sculls. Stone won the silver medal in the women's single sculls at the 2016 Olympic Games, while Wagner is racing on her first Olympic and Senior national team.
At the 2019 World Rowing Championships, Stone finished fifth in the event with then partner Cicely Madden, missing the medal stand by less than one second. New Zealand won the gold medal, followed by Romania, The Netherlands and Canada. At this year's World Rowing Cup II, Stone and Wagner won the bronze medal behind Romania and The Netherlands.
The U.S. finished sixth in the event in 2016.
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls (LW2x)
The lightweight women's double sculls duo of Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) and Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) had to go to the 2021 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in order to earn their way to Tokyo.
Sechser and Reckford have been in top form all year, having dominated the field in the event at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Rowing and then winning the qualifier.
New Zealand, The Netherlands and Great Britain took the top three spots at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, but the Kiwi crew will not be racing in Tokyo. Great Britain, Romania and France won the medals at the 2021 World Rowing Cup II.
The U.S. finished 10th in the event in Rio, last winning a medal in 2000.
Women's Quadruple Sculls (W4x)
The women's quadruple sculls crew of Ellen Tomek (Flushing, Mich./University of Michigan), Meghan O'Leary (Baton Rouge, La./University of Virginia), Alie Rusher (West Bend, Wis./Stanford University), and Cicely Madden (Weston, Mass./Brown University) includes two Olympic veterans and two Olympic rookies. Tomek and O'Leary finished sixth in the double sculls in Rio.
In 2019, the U.S. finished seventh in the event at the World Rowing Championships, qualifying the boat for Tokyo. China, Poland and The Netherlands won the medals. At the 2021 World Rowing Cup II race in Lucerne, China dominated in winning gold, with Germany and Italy claiming the other two medals.
The U.S. finished fifth in Rio.
Women's Four (W4-)
The women's four returns to the Olympic program for the first time since 1992, replacing the lightweight men's four. This year's crew of two-time Olympian Grace Luczak (Ann Arbor, Mich./Stanford University), Kendall Chase (Evergreen, Colo./University of California, Berkeley), Claire Collins (McLean, Va./Princeton University) and Madeleine Wanamaker (Neenah, Wis./University of Wisconsin) includes three Olympic newcomers. Luczak finished fourth in the women's pair in Rio.
The U.S. finished sixth in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships but won the world title just a year before. Wanamaker was part of both of those boats. In 2019, Australia, The Netherlands and Denmark won the medals. The Dutch boat won gold at World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, followed by Great Britain and Romania.
The U.S. won silver the last time the event was contested in Barcelona in 1992.
Women's Eight (W8+)
The U.S. enters the Games as the three-time defending Olympic champions, having won gold in 2008, 2012, and 2016. This year's crew of coxswain Katelin Guregian (Detroit, Mich./University of Washington), Olivia Coffey (Watkins Glen, N.Y./Harvard University), Charlotte Buck (Nyack, N.Y./Columbia University), Meghan Musnicki (Naples, N.Y./Ithaca College), Brooke Mooney (Peru, Vt./University of Washington), Gia Doonan (Rochester, Mass./University of Texas), Kristine O'Brien (Massapequa Park, N.Y./University of Virginia), Jessica Thoennes (Highlands Ranch, Colo./University of Washington), and Regina Salmons (Methuen, Mass./University of Pennsylvania) includes two members of the 2016 boat--Musnicki and Guregian. Musnicki also was part of the 2012 gold medal crew.
Coffey, Doonan and O'Brien have won numerous world championship medals, while Buck, Mooney, Thoennes and Salmons will all be racing at the senior level for the first time.
The U.S. finished third at the World Rowing Championships in 2019 behind New Zealand and Australia and won gold in the event in 2018. |
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