American rower Gevvie Stone is headed to her third Olympic Games, but this time in a different event: the women's double sculls.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist and seventh-place London Games finisher in the single sculls qualified Thursday in the double at the third day of U.S. Olympic Rowing Trials No. 2 in East Windsor, New Jersey. She'll represent the United States in Tokyo alongside partner Kristi Wagner.
Stone and Wagner finished in 7:07.21, winning the final by nearly 4 seconds. Ellen Tomek/Meghan O'Leary, the 2017 world silver and 2018 world bronze medalists, led for about half of Thursday's race, but were passed by Stone and Wagner with roughly 750 meters to go. They took third.
The fastest semifinals crew, Jenifer Forbes/Sophia Vitas – who won Wednesday's first flight in 7:02.52 – finished last in Thursday's final. Michelle Sechser/Molly Reckford were second.
The double isn't new to Stone – she's been competing in it since at least 2011 – but it wasn't until within the last few years that it replaced the single as her primary focus. At the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Austria, she and Cicely Madden placed fifth in the double.
As for the single, the 35-year-old came up short back in February during the first phase of U.S. Olympic rowing trials, losing by less than 4 seconds to event qualifier and reigning world bronze medalist Kara Kohler. That win made Kohler Team USA's first rowing qualifier for Tokyo.
Stone is a native of Newton, Massachusetts, and alumna of both Princeton University and Tufts Medical School. She works in emergency medicine at a hospital in Boston when she's not training for the Games. Both of her parents were Olympic-level scullers and U.S. national rowing team members.
Read more about Stone's path to Tokyo here.
Wagner finished third behind Kohler and Stone in the single during February's first phase of U.S. Olympic trials. She grew up right near Stone in the bordering town of Weston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Yale University in 2015.
Trials No. 2 (April 12-16)
Also winning in Thursday's finals: the men's quadruple sculls Penn Athletic Club crew of Charles Anderson/Justin Keen/Eliot (Finn) Putman/Sorin Koszyk (5:57.57), and the men's pair of Tom Peszek/Mike DiSanto (6:41.72, uncontested).
Both teams will race next month in Switzerland to earn spots on Team USA. Neither event has seen a top-six American finish at the last four major world rowing competitions – the Rio Olympics and three most recent world championships.
On Wednesday, three athletes qualified to represent Team USA at the Paralympics:
- Blake Haxton (10:58.06) in the men's Para single sculls PR1, who just missed the podium in Rio
- Hallie Smith (12:51.31) in the women's Para single sculls PR1, her first Games
- Russell Gernaat and Laura Goodkind (8:42.60) in the mixed Para double sculls PR2, Goodkind's second Games after placing 10th in Rio with a different partner
Full results can be found here.
Trials No. 1 (Feb. 22-26)
The first trials phase included the men's single sculls (M1x), women's single sculls (W1x), men's double sculls (M2x), women's lightweight double sculls (LW2x) and men's lightweight double sculls (LM2x). Only the women's single sculls event produced an Olympic qualifier in Kohler, who finished in 7:23.37.
The other four event winners — John Graves in the men's single sculls; Kevin Cardno and Jonathan Kirkegaard in the men's double sculls; Michelle Sechser and Molly Reckford in the women's lightweight double sculls; and Zachary Heese and Jasper Liu in the men's lightweight double sculls — will also race May 15-17 at the 2021 FISA Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, to earn spots on the Olympic roster.