Team USA women's rowing team features a lot of Jersey talent from Garden State.
More than one dozen women with ties to Princeton, New Jersey, along with other women with ties to the Garden State and Philadelphia, and the rest of their teammates, are hoping to push harder and win gold at the Paris Olympics.
Team USA Women's Eight Rowing team calls Princeton, NJ home
This year's Team USA women's Eight rowing team is something special. Most of the women residing and training in Princeton, are now representing the nation on the biggest athletic stage.
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Molly Bruggeman, Charlotte Buck, Christina "Nina" Casatagna, Olivia Coffey, Claire Collins, Margaret Hedeman, Regina Salmon and Madeline Wanamaker make up this year's elite Team USA Women's 8 Rowing Team.
All the athletes are current Princeton natives, training at one of the top USA Olympic training sites and home to US Rowing's national/Olympic team, The Caspersen Rowing Center.
According to the center's website, "Through a partnership with US Rowing, PNRA provides office space, locker rooms, shower facilities and exclusive boathouse bays for the US Rowing’s National Team. Through it’s seven-lane fully buoyed racing course, three-story finish line tower and light start system, PNRA provides a world class rowing course used in selection and training of teams to represent the United States in international competition."
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More US Olympic Team Trials have been held on Mercer Lake than any other venue in the nation.
Casatagna, a first-time Olympian, will lead this year's team to victory as the coxswain of her boat as they try to avenge their loss in the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, bringing the United States back on top.
Other first-time Olympians on the team include dynamic athlete Molly Bruggeman, a graduate of Notre Dame University and Rowing World Champion, and Margaret Hedeman, a graduate of Yale University and First-Team All-Ivy Selection.
Another big name on the team that was familiar with winning was Princeton graduate Claire Collins. Collins took home gold in the four-boat in the 2023 World Rowing Cup with Bruggeman. Collins is looking to return to the podium, but this time in the eight boat. Paris 2024 will be her first Olympic Games in the eight-boat, as she pushed in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 in the four-boat and finished in 7th place.
For Olympian Olivia Coffey, rowing at the Olympics has been in her blood. Coffey's father, Calvin, won the silver medal in the men's pair at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976. As the second-generation Olympian gears up for her second consecutive Olympic Games, she will attempt to add an Olympic gold medal to her collection of three current world titles.
Regina Salmons, one of the four Tokyo 2020 women's eight members back for more, is also set to race in the same boat; she's bringing years of experience to the table since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, where she was awarded as a scholar athlete and selected as a 2018 First All-Ivy First-Team member. Now, she and teammates Madeline Wanamaker and Charlotte Buck are ready to avenge their Tokyo 2020 fourth-place finish.
More Jersey talent representing Team USA, rowing in the Olympics
As if the women's rowing team needed any more New Jersey talent, more women from the area are headed to Paris for other rowing events.
Teal Cohen, a University of Washington graduate who trains in Princeton, has three world championship titles, which prepared her to conquer the Tokyo Olympics. Now, she's going for the gold. She will be competing in the Women's Quadruple Sculls.
Another athlete, Azja Czajkowski, two-time Pac-12 Conference athlete of the year from Stanford University and US Rowing co-athlete of the year, means serious business. As someone who was a product of two rowing parents, John, who rowed at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Karine, who rowed at Georgetown, there was always a piece of her that knew she wanted to be in that same boat. She will compete in her first Olympic Games in the Women's Pair event.
Kelsey Reelick, another first-time Olympian, will be racing in the Women's Four event. Her experience at the US Rowing World Championships made her a standout, earning her 4th place. Her family has been a huge influence on her, with her parents being her personal heroes and even her sister Erin, who is a multiple national team member herself. Fellow Jersey-trained athletes Emily Kallfelz and Kaitlin Knifton join her on the Four boat.
Add in New Jersey native Molly Reckford and Schuylkill River rower Michelle Sechser in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls and the Philly, New Jersey bonds are even stronger in the water at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
Women's rowing starts on Saturday, July 27, and much of the action you can see streaming on NBCOlympics.com.
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