Entries Set for First 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing in Sarasota

SARASOTA, Fla. – Two weeks from today, 2019 World Rowing Championships' bronze medalist Kara Kohler, 2016 Olympic silver medalist Gevvie Stone and 36 other women's single scullers will battle it out for the first spot on rowing's 2020 U.S. Olympic Team, pending USOPC approval.

While five boat classes will be contested at the at the first 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Rowing, only the winner of the women's single sculls will earn her ticket to Tokyo.

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 entries closing over the weekend, more than 120 athletes in 93 boats are scheduled to race in Sarasota during the five-day event scheduled for February 22-26.

Kohler (Clayton, Calif./University of California, Berkeley) and Stone (Newton, Mass./Princeton University) headline a women's single sculls' field that is deep with talent. Kohler, who trains out of the USRowing Training Center – Princeton, raced in the quadruple sculls at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, winning a bronze medal. After not making the team in Rio, she switched to the single sculls in 2018, finishing fourth at the world championships in her first season in the event and then winning a bronze medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria.

Stone won a silver medal in the event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro before taking 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 Cambridge's 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.

While Kohler and Stone are the favorites coming into trials, the field is peppered with national team veterans from all levels 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), to name a few.

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, but 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 sculls in Linz, while Christine Cavallo (Windermere, Fla./Stanford University) and Michelle Sechser (Folsom, Calif./University of Tulsa) raced in the lightweight women's double, finishing 10th at the world championships.

Jones and Schmieg are back together this season, looking to regain their 2018 form. Meanwhile, 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. 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 event. Stawicki will row with Olivia Farrar (Pittsford, N.Y./Harvard University), while Bertasi will race with Solveig Imsdahl (Philadelphia, Pa/Cornell University). Ten crews are scheduled to race in Sarasota.

In the men's single sculls, Riverside Boat Club'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 27-boat field also includes Craftsbury'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).

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), at the Olympic Trials. 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.

United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee

Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. The USOPC is focused on protecting, supporting and empowering America's athletes, and is responsible for fielding U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games, and serving as the steward of the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the U.S. A federally chartered nonprofit corporation, the USOPC does not receive federal financial support (other than for select Paralympic military veteran programs) and is one of only four NOCs in the world that also manages Paralympic activities. More information is available at TeamUSA.org.

USRowing

USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing has 83,000 individual members and 1,350 member organizations, offering rowing programs for all. USRowing receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners.

Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates Inc.

Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates Inc. (SANCA) is a not-for-profit 501c3 business created to manage Nathan Benderson Park (NBP), a community/public asset and world-class, multi-use sports venue. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for our community and be an economic generator for our region. SANCA's primary purpose is to develop and promote NBP as a world class event center, team training site and Sarasota County park, while providing outreach programs through recreation, safety training, education and volunteering as a service to our community. For more information, go to nathanbendersonpark.org/about-us/sanca-mission.