UW rowers win record 11 medals at Paris Olympics

August 06, 2024 / 5:05 pm

caption: Silver medalists, left, Team Netherlands, gold medalists, front, Team Britain and bronze medalists the United States Team pose during a medals ceremony at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Vaires-sur-Marne, France.

University of Washington rowers won a total of 11 Olympic medals in Paris, the highest total in the history of the venerated program.

Eight UW alumni earned medals in the final day of the Paris regatta Saturday, including a gold medal for Jacob Dawson in the men's eight final for Great Britain. Dawson was the 2016 UW captain and won bronze four years ago in the Tokyo games.

Silver in the men's eight went to UW alum Gert-Jan van Doorn, who was part of the Dutch team that was defeated by the British squad.

caption: University of Washington alumni and now Olympic medal winners after the final regatta Saturday in Paris: (from left) Chris Carlson, Evan Olson, Pieter Quinton, Rielly Milne, Gert-Jan van Doorn, coach Michael Callahan, and Jacob Dawson.

The U.S. men's eight finished third, earning bronze medals for four additional Huskies — Chris Carlson, Rielly Milne, Evan Olson, and Pieter Quinton. That squad is also coached by a Husky, Michael Callahan, class of 1996.

While the Paris Olympics were a record haul for UW Rowing, it was not quite a record for the UW as a whole. The Huskies won 12 medals in 1936 and again in 1984. The 1936 Olympics included nine gold medals for the UW men's eight with coxswain for the legendary "Boys in the Boat" squad.

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caption: At the 1936 Olympic Games, the University of Washington eight-oar boat crossed the finish line ahead of Italy. They were featured in "The Boys in the Boat" by Seattle-area author Daniel James Brown.

In addition to the men, UW alum Holly Dunford earned a bronze medal in her Olympic debut with the Great Britain women's eight.

In the men's sculls final, former UW captain Simon van Dorp won the bronze medal for the Dutch squad.

Earlier in the week, UW alumni won three additional medals — Tabea Schendekehl won bronze with the German women's quad, Phoebe Spoors won bronze withe the New Zealand women's four, and Logan Ullrich won silver with New Zealand's men's four.

Overall, if "UW Rowing Alumni" was a country, it would have ranked 11th for its medal haul.

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Stephen Howie
Online Editor/Producer

Stephen Howie is an Online Editor/Producer at KUOW. He is an award-winning journalist, nonfiction writer, college professor and videographer. His first book, The Bluffton Charge: One Preacher’s Struggle for Civil Rights won the Mammoth Books Nonfiction Prize.
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