Gold Medal Teamwork with Mary Whipple

The lure of a free ride to college and a chance at making an Olympic team has made for an upsurge of interest at the high school and club levels The result has been an explosive and continued growth, with the number of women’s crews now dwarfing that of men. According to NCAA records, there were 2,053 men competing for 48 schools in 1982 compared with 1,187 women for 43 programs. This year there were 2,364 men at 60 schools and 7,282 women at 145 schools, many of them on scholarship. (NCAA records) 1997 – first NCAA championships for women’s rowing Scholarships gave it validity and level of professionalism. Rowing sport of choice, could be in the sport of rowing. That allowed more depth for the national team. 2004 – women graduating and moving into the nationals and competing competitively Allowed to become leaders of their own teams, learning to work together This created a stronger, larger pool of candidates to get into the boat. Journey: building leaders, building breadth of winning teams, leaders learned to work together in a national team – tipping point in 2004 depth and breadth of rowers to build a national team.

Fortunate enough to be get my scholarship to UW in the second year of the existence of Women’s NCAA rowing. Three national championships. I started considering the Olympics, it could be a possibility. I realized I earned the varsity boat, the mentorship of my coach. And timing – leading into 2001. Segue into not getting left behind. Taking what you’ve learned into the new environment on the national team.