MADISON, Wis. – A pair of first-time Badger Olympians are set to head to Paris 2024 this summer, joining two others who already made the team.
Belleville, Wisconsin, native Lauren O'Connor and Northfield, Illinois, native Grace Joyce qualified this morning in Switzerland by winning the women's quadruple sculls at the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic & Paralympic Qualification Regatta.
O'Connor and Joyce both rowed for the Badgers from 2016-20.
The duo and their crew clocked a 6:28.04 to edge Ukraine, which timed a 6:28.27 over 2000 meters. The Americans passed Ukraine in the last 250, though both crews earned the last two Olympic spots. Canada finished third.
The former Badgers each earned invites to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Selection Camp that ran March 3-24 in Sarasota, Florida, after their strong performances at the 2024 Winter Speed Order in February.
From the selection camp, both were chosen to race in the women's quadruple sculls, an unqualified boat for Team USA at the Olympics. This morning is when that crew qualified.
O'Connor previously competed at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, placing 11th in the women's quadruple sculls.
As a walk-on at Wisconsin, O'Connor raced at the 2019 NCAA Championships with the varsity eight, helping them take 16th. She also raced with that same crew and placed third at that year's Big Ten Championships. She finished off her UW racing career at the 2019 Head of the Charles in the same championship eight boat as Joyce, helping the crew place 12th, before COVID-19 forced cancelation of the spring season.
Joyce rowed in the same women's quad as O'Connor in 2023 at the world championships, while also racing to gold in the women's quad, second in the eight and fourth in the single sculls at the 2023 Pan American Games. In addition, she placed ninth in the 2022 World Rowing Championships quadruple sculls and raced at the 2018 and 2019 World Rowing Under-23 Championships in the lightweight double sculls.
As a Badger, Joyce's racing career ended early due to COVID-19, but she helped the second varsity eight place 12th at the 2019 NCAA Championships. She also rowed with the UW lightweight eight that finished fourth at the 2017 Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships and seventh at that event in 2018.
The duo now join Sophia Vitas (Franklin, Wis.) and two-time Olympian Maddie Wanamaker (Neenah, Wis.) as former Badgers women on this year's Olympic team. Vitas will make her Olympic debut racing in the women's double sculls. Wanamaker, who placed seventh in the women's four in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will either race in the women's eight or women's four.
The last time four Wisconsin women competed in the same Olympics was the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain. That year, Cindy Eckert and Carol Feeney won silver medals in the women's four without coxswain, while Yasmin Farooq coxed the eight that also included Sara Gengler. Kim Santiago served as a spare coxswain that year, as well.
The 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, also boasted four competing Badger women including Eckert, Gengler and coxswain Santiago in the fifth-place women's four with coxswain, and Mari Keggi in the sixth-place women's pair. That year, 1984 Olympic gold medalist Kris Thorsness was a spare rower for the Games.
