Women's Single Olympic Berth Up for Grabs at First 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Rowing

Less than four days before the scheduled start of last March's first 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing, the event was canceled due to COVID-19, and shortly thereafter, the Olympics were officially postponed.

Eleven months later, the first spot on rowing's 2020 U.S. Olympic Team will be up for grabs at the re-scheduled event.

"It's exciting – and nerve-wracking – to race again after a much longer than typical hiatus," said Gevvie Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University), 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the women's single sculls. "Despite the changes in the last year, my goal is the same. I hope to be able to race my fastest race in the final and to leave my best performance on the water."

In total, 119 athletes in 91 boats are scheduled to race in Sarasota during the five-day event beginning February 22. And while five boat classes will be contested next week, only the winner of the women's single sculls will earn her ticket to Tokyo, pending USOPC approval.

The other four event winners in the men's single sculls, men's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls and lightweight men's double sculls will need to race at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta May 15-17 to claim their spots on the Olympic roster.

With an Olympic berth on the line, the battle between Stone and 2019 World Rowing Championships bronze medalist, Kara Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley), takes center stage in Sarasota.

After winning a bronze medal in the quadruple sculls at the 2012 Olympics in London and then failing to make the 2016 Olympic Team, Kohler switched to the single sculls in 2018, finishing fourth at the world championships in her first season in the event. Kohler built on that initial success in 2019, winning a bronze medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. She hopes to continue that upward trajectory this year, despite the unexpected delay caused by the pandemic.

"It was difficult figuring it out and not smooth by any means," said Kohler, who trains out of the USRowing Training Center – Princeton, about dealing with the postponement and re-focusing her preparation. "My motivation was terrifyingly low during those first couple of months, which made training incredibly difficult. One of the first things I did after the postponement was adopt my dog, Luna. She has been the best mental relief for me during what has been a brutal year mentally. After taking some time to train at home during the summer to see family, I returned to the training center in September and approached the training just like I would any other year."

Coming into Olympic Trials, Kohler is trying to stay focused and not get ahead of herself.

"(I'm trying to) stay focused on what I need to do today that will set me up well to achieve my goals come race day," Kohler said. "My focus, as it is in any other year, is to get to the start line healthy and feeling fired up to race!"

After winning her silver medal in in Rio, Stone took two years off from international competition to focus on her medical residency in Boston. In 2019, the Cambridge Boat Club sculler finished second to Kohler at the national team trials before teaming up with Cicely Madden (Weston, Mass./Brown University) in the double sculls, winning a silver medal at the second world cup race and then finishing fifth at the world championships, missing a medal by less than one second.

After the postponement of the Olympics last March, Stone, who was scheduled to return to her medical residency in August 2020, had to make the difficult decision of whether to continue training for the Games. Ultimately, she decided to take another leave from her residency to continue training for Tokyo.

"Coach Dad, my training squad, and I knew that we couldn't sustain Olympic-year momentum for two years; consequently, we adapted the training schedule last spring and summer for less volume, less stress, and more fun," Stone said. "Beginning in the fall, we returned to the Olympic-year level of training, with slight modifications given what we had learned from the spring and summer training. We try to be adaptable and always look for ways to improve and to gain speed."

While Kohler and Stone are the presumptive favorites heading into trials, the 37-woman field is loaded with national team veterans including Madden; USTC-Princeton's Emily Huelskamp (Sainte Genevieve, Mo./Wheaton College), Kate Roach (North Oaks, Minn./Cornell University), Sophia Vitas (Franklin, Wis./University of Wisconsin), Elizabeth Sonshine (Short Hills, N.J./Bates College) and Taylor Goetzinger (Mt. Pleasant, Mich./Cornell University); Craftsbury Green Racing Project's Erin Boxberger (Overland Park, Kan./University of Notre Dame), Jenifer Forbes (Baltimore, Md./Northeastern University) and Emily Delleman (Davenport, Iowa/Stanford University); ARION's Maureen McAuliffe (Herndon, Va./George Mason University) and Boston Rowing Federation's Maggie Fellows (Warwick, Mass./St. Lawrence University).

In the lightweight women's double sculls, Cambridge Boat Club's Mary Jones (Huntsville, Ala./University of Tennessee) and Potomac Boat Club's Emily Schmieg (Philadelphia, Pa./University of Pittsburgh) won a silver medal in the event at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. However, the duo finished third at the 2019 U.S. National Team Trials after an injury-plagued spring and failed to make the 2019 squad. Schmieg went on to race in the lightweight women's single in Linz, while Christine Cavallo (Windermere, Fla./Stanford University) and Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) finished 10th in the lightweight women's double.

Jones and Schmieg are back together this season, looking to regain their 2018 form.

"Preparations going into trials have been good," Schmieg said. "Mary and I have been working together for three years now and have a solid foundation in the double. We spent a lot of time together in Boston this fall training hard in both the single and the double before heading to Austin for our pre-trials build-up. We're both very excited to race the double for the first time in almost two years!"

Schmieg said there was never a question that the two were going to keep training after the postponement.

"The mentality of training shifted for a while to just low-key, happy training through the spring and summer," Schmieg said. "Coming into the fall, we buckled down and really got to work. We had a small hiccup in late November when I had surgery for thyroid cancer, but we were back in the boat and doing pieces two weeks later. It's been a lot of years of hard work on and off the water, and we're focused on bringing everything we have to trials."

While Jones and Schmieg have continued their partnership, Sechser and Cavallo will be racing with new boatmates in Sarasota. Sechser will row with Molly Reckford (Short Hills, N.J./Dartmouth College) as part of a Cambridge Boat Club/Sarasota Crew composite crew, while Cavallo will row with Grace Joyce (Northfield, Ill./University of Wisconsin) out of Craftsbury Sculling Center.

Cara Stawicki (Wall, N.J./Lehigh University) and Margaret Bertasi (London, England/Princeton, N.J.), who won the gold medal in the lightweight women's pair at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, are both entered in the 10-boat field. Stawicki will row with Olivia Farrar (Pittsford, N.Y./Harvard University), while Bertasi will race with Solveig Imsdahl (Philadelphia, Pa/Cornell University).

In the men's single sculls, Craftsbury Sculling Center's Kevin Meador (Berkeley, Calif./Northeastern University) has represented the U.S. in the event at the past two world championships, finishing 21st in 2019. The 26-boat field also includes Craftsbury Sculling Center's John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College), a six-time senior national team member who raced in the quadruple sculls in 2019; Craftsbury's Lucas Bellows (Forest Lake, Minn./University of Minnesota), who raced in the single at the 2019 Pan American Games; and several past national team members including Mike Clougher (Canton, Mass./Connecticut College), Malta Boat Club's Leonard Futterman (New York, N.Y./Boston University), and Keble College Boat Club's Matthew O'Leary (Westwood, Mass./Harvard University).

"Going into the event, (I'm) feeling thankful for all the work that has gone into making this event possible and grateful for the opportunity to race," Graves said. "It took a long time to come to grips with the new timeline, but once I did, I was able to accept the postponement as an invitation to get faster rather than a misfortune."

Eleven boats have entered the men's double sculls. Penn AC's Justin Keen (Philadelphia, Pa./Penn State University) represented the U.S. in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, finishing 20th. Keen will race with a new partner, Sorin Koszyk (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Cornell University). London 2012 Olympian Peter Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College) will row with his brother, Thomas (Cincinnati, Ohio/Trinity College), giving the Graves' family three brothers competing in Sarasota. Vesper Boat Club's Jonathan Kirkegaard (Philadelphia, Pa./Purdue University), a 2017 Senior National Team member, will race with Oklahoma City High Performance Center's Kevin Cardno (Huntsville, Ala./ University of Alabama, Huntsville).

Seven crews have entered the lightweight men's double sculls event. After racing together in the lightweight men's quadruple sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, Jasper Liu (Phoenix, Ariz./University of Pennsylvania) will team up with Zachary Heese (Pelham, N.Y./University of Virginia) for the chance to go to the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Mission Rowing's James Nelson (Austin, Texas/Franklin and Marshall College), who was part of the lightweight men's pair in 2019, will row with Galen Bernick (Tempe, Ariz./Mercyhurst University), while Nelson's pair partner from 2019, Alex Twist (Boston, Mass./University of Puget Sound), will row with two-time national team member Hugh McAdam (Hollis, N.H./Washington College). The hometown entry from Sarasota Crew features three-time U.S. Junior National Team member Harrison Schofield (Sarasota, Fla./Harvard University) and Kory Rogers (Sarasota, Fla.)

Racing will open with time trials on Monday. Heats will take place on Tuesday, with repechages taking place on Wednesday. Thursday will feature semifinals, with finals taking place on Friday. Racing is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. on the first four days, with Friday's racing beginning at 8:30 a.m. Due to COVID-19, there will be no spectators allowed on the island at Nathan Benderson Park.

Semifinals and finals will be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

The second 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials will take place April 12-16 in West Windsor, N.J. That regatta will feature racing in the women's double sculls, men's quadruple sculls, men's pair, PR1 men's single sculls, PR1 women's single sculls and PR2 mixed double sculls.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be held July 23-August 9, with rowing events slated to start on the morning of July 23. The Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 are scheduled to take place August 24-September 5, with para rowing events starting August 27.

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