Cornell Rowers Training for 2020 Olympics

Big Red Alumni – Current Olympic and National Team Hopefuls

Many of our alumni continue rowing after graduation, some in pursuit of representing the USA as a part of the US National Team at international events, including the Olympics. Below you can find brief bios of many of the alumni that are currently training across the country.

Please feel free to reach out to offer them your support!

Tracy Eisser, ‘12

Tracy and her current pair partner, Megan Kalmoe earned a silver medal in the 2017 World Championships last summer. Tracy also won the World Championships in 2015 in the Women’s Quad.

Current update as of January 2018- I am training at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA with my pair partner from last year, Megan Kalmoe. I was fortunate enough to come out here a few weeks before the rest of the women from the Princeton Training Center so that Megan and I could get some more meters in the pair under our belts before the upcoming spring speed order and NSR. I will be here until the end of March, when I will return to Princeton, NJ. At that point all of the PTC women will be focusing on training to race in the pair at the spring selection events and possibly the first World Cup in Serbia in June. How the rest of the summer goes will depend on what happens at the NSR in May, but I am hoping to have the opportunity to race the pair internationally again this season.

E-mail: tracy.eisser@gmail.com

Taylor Goetzinger, ‘12

I trained from 2012 to 2016. I have represented our country three times in international competition. I was in selection for the 2016 Olympic team, but I did not make the squad. After being cut, I took 10 months off. I coached rowing in Ithaca both at Cascadilla Boat Club and at Cornell, and I started working as a paralegal at Legal Assistance of Western New York. I am most passionate about law and public policy, and of course rowing.

In June of 2017, I decided I wanted to try again. I began training at Collyer and Teagle. It was an absolute joy and a privilege to share that training environment with the caliber of coaches and athletes that make up Cornell Rowing. In January, I moved to Seattle to begin training with Carlos Dinares out of Seattle Rowing Center. I am here with a small group, including Greg Davis '16. We are having tons of fun and putting in a lot of meters and hard work. The energy is really good, and I am so satisfied with everything about the arrangement. I feel confident saying I am a 2020 Olympic hopeful.

I have an extremely kind and generous group of businesses, families and individuals sponsoring my housing, food, and physical therapy. I will be writing monthly features on my sponsors who I believe make up my team. These will be published on my website and promoted on my social media accounts. If CRA or any of you as individuals are interested or able to support me, I still need help covering the cost of the $350 monthly membership fee to Seattle Rowing Center.

In February, I will begin a monthly newsletter. Please e-mail me if you would like to subscribe to these updates on my journey to the Olympics.

Thank you! BMA.

E-mail: tig7@cornell.edu
Website: taylorgoetzinger.com
Instagram: instagram.com/taylorgoetzinger/
Facebook page: facebook.com/taylorgoetzin

Kate Roach, ‘15

My name is Kate Roach and I’ve been training at the US Training Center in Princeton, NJ since June 2016, with the hopes of making the 2020 Olympic team. I live with a host family in the area and train with a group of almost 30 other women. If you’re ever in the Princeton area, I’d love to meet up between practices!

E-mail: ker79@cornell.edu

Michael Colella, ‘16

Graduating in an Olympic Year is a great opportunity for a smaller heavyweight athlete like myself. After graduating in 2016, I was able to sneak into the US Men's Training Center group and ended winning pair trials this past July. After an 11th place finish at the Senior World Championships, I moved out to Oakland to join some of the US men's team as we continue to work toward the 2020 games. I live in Berkeley and was able to find a part-time job for InstaViser, a mentorship web service for learning institutions and empowerment organizations.

I am not currently in need of a host family, but I would love to connect with alumni in the area! Also, there are many athletes moving out to Oakland in the coming months. If anyone in the Bay Area is looking to bring on some part-time employees, I would be happy to connect you with some highly motivated individuals!

You can reach me at michael@instaviser.com or mjc393@cornell.edu.

More on Mike can be found here: http://cornellbigred.com/news/2017/9/19/mens-rowing-heavyweight-get-to-know-cornells-us-rowers-karwoski-12-colella-16.aspx?path=mrow-h

Alex Karwoski, ‘12

Read here about 2016 Olympian Alex Karwoski- http://cornellbigred.com/news/2017/9/19/mens-rowing-heavyweight-get-to-know-cornells-us-rowers-karwoski-12-colella-16.aspx?path=mrow-h

Alex earned a silver medal in the Men’s Eight at the 2017 World Championships last summer after racing in the same event at the 2016 Olympics, placing fourth. Alex is currently training with the USA men’s senior team.

E-mail: aek95@cornell.edu

Christopher Rogers, ‘15

I'm currently enjoying training with the high performance sculling group at Potomac Boat Club in Washington, DC. After watching a bevy of inspiring international lightweight rowers transition to openweight rowing with great success this past year at the 2017 World Rowing Championships, I am currently working towards my 2020 Tokyo goal with an adjusted trajectory and a lot more daily calories.

I spent my first two years after graduating at Riverside Boat Club in Boston. I was lucky to have found a great group of lightweights with international racing experience who I both learned from and competed with at two World Championships (LM4x in 2016 & LM2x in 2017).

Thank you to the Cornell Rowing Community and all my former teammates for their continued support! Go RED!

Email: Clrogers607@gmail.com

Instagram: @Croj180

**Any alumni currently training who would like to be added to this list, please contract Liz Dennison, Associate Director of Rowing (ehd32@cornell.edu) with a short bio and contact information!**

Cornell RowingJanuary 28, 2018Comment