Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Birth name | Melissa C. Schwen | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | July 17, 1972 52) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. | (age|||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Melissa C. Schwen Ryan (born July 17, 1972, in Bloomington, Indiana) is an American rower. After her first medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, she donated a kidney to her sick brother in need of a transplant. [1] She became the first Olympian to medal and have donated a kidney.[ citation needed ] On March 20, 2010, she was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame. [2] Schwen-Ryan, her husband, Tim, and their three children Keith, Bach, and Hugh moved from their home in Dallas, Texas, to Jackson, Wyoming, and then Santa Barbara, California. They are currently living in the Bay Area.
Kathleen Joan Heddle, was a Canadian Olympic rower. She and her long-time rowing partner Marnie McBean were the first Canadians to be awarded three Olympic gold medals at the Summer Games. They also won a silver in double sculls at the 1994 World Championships.
Marnie Elizabeth McBean, is a Canadian former rower. She is a three-time Olympic gold medallist. In 2023, she was appointed to the Senate of Canada.
Michael Louis Vespoli is a former American rower and rowing coach. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Vespoli USA, Inc., a boat manufacturer in New Haven, Connecticut, that makes shells for rowing teams and individual rowers. Vespoli was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
Lesley Allison Thompson-Willie is a Canadian rowing coxswain and Olympic champion. Between 1984 and 2016, she has competed at eight Olympic Games, a record for a rower, winning medals in five of them including gold in the eight at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Carol Page Brown is an American rower who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the 1980 Olympic team women's eight that did not compete in the Moscow Olympic Games due to the US-led boycott. She was a member of the 1984 Olympic team in Los Angeles.
Jessica Monroe, also known under her married name Gonin, is a Canadian rower. She was born in Palo Alto, California. Monroe won two gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, in the coxless four and in the eight, and a silver medal in 1996 in Atlanta.
Karen Kraft is an American rower and two-time Olympic medal winner.
Kristen J. Thorsness is an American former competitive rower and Olympic gold medalist. She was a member of the American women's eights team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, the first US women's crew to win Olympic gold. She grew up in Alaska, and started rowing at the University of Wisconsin. She was named the Big Ten Conference's rower of the decade and was runner up for Big Ten female athlete of the decade. In addition to the 1984 Olympic team, she was part of three World championship silver medal-winning crews and was a member of the 1988 Olympic team. She is a member of the US Rowing Hall of Fame, an inaugural inductee into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame, and is also a member of the University of Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame. She served on the US Rowing board of directors, currently serves on US Rowing's referee committee, and has been a US Rowing referee since 2003. She has been an attorney since 1989, currently practicing law in Rochester, New York and is an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Michael Francis Teti is an American Olympic rowing coach and former rower. Formerly the head coach of men's crew at the University of California, Berkeley, he is a twelve-time U.S. national team member, three-time Olympian, a member of the world champion men's eight in 1987, and is a member of the U.S. National Rowing Hall of Fame as both an athlete and coach. He has served as the US Men's head coach since June 2018.
Margot Foster is an Australian national representative and Olympic medal winning rower.
Anna Seaton Huntington is an American rower and author. She competed in the women's eight oared shell in the 1988 Olympics and won a bronze medal in the coxless pair in 1992 at the Barcelona Games. She also won five World Championship silver medals during her six-year career on the U.S. National Rowing Team.
Laryssa Biesenthal is a Canadian former representative rower rower. She is a dual Olympic medallist and represented Canada in sweep-oared and sculling boats at four World Rowing Championships, medalling on each occasion. She is married to Olympic rower Iain Brambell.
Emma Robinson is a Canadian rower. Robinson won two medals at the Summer Olympics as part of the women's eight rowing teams for Canada in 1996 in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Robinson is also a three time world champion in the women's coxless pairs, when she won gold from 1997 to 1999, she has an additional silver medal, and three bronze, for a total of seven World Rowing Championships medals. She was named the Pairs Team of the Year at the National Sports Awards, winning in 1997 with Alison Korn and in 1999 with Theresa Luke.
Alison Korn was a Canadian rower and Olympian.
Yasmin Farooq is an American rowing cox and the head coach of the University of Washington women's rowing team. She graduated from Waupun High School in 1984 at Waupun, Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she joined the rowing team in 1984 as a coxswain. She was a member of the 1986 national champion JV eight and served as captain and MVP of the team her senior year. A two-time Olympian and world champion in rowing, Farooq later became a college coach at Stanford University where she helped the Cardinal win its first ever Pac-12 and NCAA titles in rowing. At the University of Washington, her team swept the NCAA Championship for the first-time in history, then repeated the feat in 2019 setting NCAA records in all three events. She has been named Pac-12 coach of the year six times and national coach of the year three times. She was inducted into the USRowing Hall of Fame in 2014 and awarded the Ernestine Bayer Woman of the Year award by USRowing in 2017. In 2021, Farooq was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame.
Philippa June Baker, now known by her married name Philippa Baker-Hogan, is a former New Zealand rower and politician. She was the first New Zealand woman to win a gold medal at World Rowing Championships and won gold at world championships on two more occasions. She has twice represented New Zealand at the Olympics. She has received numerous awards for her rowing success and in 2012, she and fellow double sculler Brenda Lawson were inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. A trained radiographer, she manages her husband's medical practice. She has been a Whanganui District Health Board and Wanganui District Council member since 2004 and 2006, respectively, and was a mayoral candidate in 2010. She is a member of the New Zealand Labour Party.
Brenda Catherine Lawson is a New Zealand rower. She was twice world champion in women's double sculls with Philippa Baker, and they were both inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Guylaine Bernier was a Canadian rower of the 1970s and later became a referee and sporting leader.
Jennifer Walinga is a retired rower who competed between the 1980s to 1990s. As a member of the national rowing team for Canada, Walinga did not medal at the 1985 World Rowing Championships. In coxed four events, Walinga won gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and the 1986 World Rowing Championships. Years later, she had a seventh place finish in coxed four at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Aerial Gilbert is a blind American rower who was a member of the United States adaptive team. She is also an avid beekeeper.