Two-Time Olympian Andrea Thies Joins Para National Team Staff

Two-time Olympian Andrea Thies has joined the USRowing Para National Team staff as Para talent ID and development coach. She also will serve as the sculling coach for PR3 national team selection camp this summer.

"Andrea is an outstanding athlete, coach and mentor," said USRowing Para High Performance Director, Ellen Minzner. "The depth of her sculling experience will be a real asset to the program, with the introduction of the PR3 mixed double sculls at the Paralympic Games in Paris."

Thies began her coaching career in 1997 as an assistant coach at Princeton University. Last summer, she served as the assistant coach for the PR3 mixed four with coxswain for the 2022 World Rowing Championships.

A passionate coach and educator with expertise in athletic performance and motivation, Thies has a decade of experience as the head coach and co-founder at Cooperstown Rowing, now Otsego Area Rowing, Inc. She directs Otsego Area Rowing's adaptive rowing and Freedom Rows programs, where she has pioneered community partnerships for sport and recreational opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Thies also serves as the men's rowing assistant coach at Colgate University.

Thies has demonstrated a lifelong commitment for creating learning resources and building cohesive communities. She co-founded the Oneonta World of Learning, a children's museum in Oneonta, N.Y. In addition, she has taught mathematics in public school and created extracurricular programming for robotics competition and environmental activism.

As an athlete, Thies made two Olympic teams, serving as an alternate at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, before racing in the quadruple sculls at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She won a silver medal in the double sculls at the 1995 Pan American Games and raced at four world championships.

Thies earned her bachelor's degree in natural resources at Cornell University and her master's degree in human development and psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a member of the Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame.