The U.S. will have two boats competing at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 including the PR3 mixed double sculls and PR3 mixed four with coxswain.
Last year, the U.S. won two Para medals at the 2023 World Rowing Championships including silver in the PR3 mixed double sculls and silver in the PR3 mixed four with coxswain.
All seven athletes who will be competing in Paris are first-time Paralympians and are all coming off silver-medal performances at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the U.S. won the silver medal in the PR3 mixed four with coxswain.
The PR3 mixed double sculls crew of Saige Harper Easthampton, Mass./Sacred Heart University) and Todd Vogt (Rochester, N.Y./University of Buffalo/Portland Boat Club) finished fourth at the 2024 World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland. Vogt won a silver medal in the event with Gemma Wollenschlaeger at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, while Harper was part of the silver-medal four at last year’s world championships. Australia’s Jed Altschwager and Nikki Ayers won the race in Poznan in June, with Great Britain’s Annabel Caddick and Samuel Murray taking silver and Germany’s Hermine Krumbein and Jan Helmich winning bronze. Altschwager and Ayers also won gold at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, with France taking third. This will be the first year that the event will be contested at the Paralympic Games.
The PR3 four with coxswain of Emelie Eldracher (Andover, Mass./Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Ben Washburne (Madison, Conn./Williams College), Alex Flynn (Wilmington, Mass./Tufts University), Skylar Dahl (Minneapolis, Minn./University of Virginia), and Gemma Wollenschlaeger (St. Augustine Beach, Fla./Temple University) recently won a silver medal at the 2024 World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland. All but Wollenschlaeger were part of the crew that won silver at the 2023 World Rowing Championships last year in Belgrade, Serbia. In both cases, the U.S. finished behind Great Britain. The British boat has won the event 13 years in a row at the world and Paralympic levels including in Tokyo in 2021. France finished third at World Cup III earlier this year, while Germany took the bronze medal at last year’s world championships and finished fourth in Poznan. The U.S. won silver in the event at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Athletes to Watch:
Skylar Dahl: Skylar, who was born with bilateral club feet, found rowing during high school at the Twin Cities Youth Rowing Center. Now a senior in college, she rows with the nationally-ranked University of Virginia women’s rowing program where she was part of the second varsity eight that finished 10th at the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships in 2023. She took the 2024 season off to focus on the Paralympics but will be returning to Virginia following the Games.
Todd Vogt: Todd began rowing as a walk-on his freshman year at the University of Buffalo. He saw a flyer in his dorm, went to the informational meeting, and was hooked after the first practice. He rowed competitively throughout college and continued rowing for the next 20 years, while also coaching the sport. While training for the 2017 Head of the Charles, he felt different. His rowing technique felt wrong. He felt unusually tired and weak but shrugged it off as getting old or overtraining. Unfortunately, the fatigue got worse and the following spring, her developed a tremor in his left hand, and his left arm no longer swung when he walked. After several months of tests, he was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease just before his 44th birthday and thought his rowing days were over. He thought about how he could continue to row competitively and wondered if he could be designated as an adaptive athlete. He reached out to USRowing to understand the possibilities, earned an invitation to the Para rowing training camp, and first represented the U.S. at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. He went on to make the 2022 and 2023 U.S. National Teams before making his first Paralympic Games in 2024.
Ben Washburne: Ben graduated from Williams College in 2023 with a double major in Economics and Physics. As a senior, we was selected second team All-NESCAC as a rower and won the John A. Shaw Award for Commitment, Perseverance, and Commitment at Williams College. Ben’s dad rowed in college and encouraged him to learn the sport. Ben currently works at Intersect Power, a leading green energy infrastructure developer, where he works to maximize the decarbonization impact and economic value of Intersect’s projects.
Gemma Wollenschlaeger: One of four Paralympic rowing team members who are still competing collegiately, Gemma earned first-team All-AAC honors in 2023 and was named Temple University Women’s Rowing Athlete of the Year. As a freshman, she earned Temple’s Newcomer of the Year in 2022. Gemma took the spring off from competing at Temple to train for the Paralympics.
For inquiries: Brett Johnson - brett.johnson@usrowing.org