Amanda Elmore will be seated inside the women’s eight boat for the United States
Nearly three years ago, Amanda Elmore never imagined she’d be going to the Rio.
It’s December 2013. Elmore is halfway into her first and only year on the University of Michigan rowing team and has barely begun her studies as a Ph.D. candidate in the University’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS), a rigorous five-to-seven year academic path.
The team is in Florida for their annual semester-break training trip. One night at a team dinner, Elmore tells head coach Mark Rothstein, “I’m considering pursuing national team rowing.”
Elmore is from West Lafayette, Ind., and spent four years as a novice rower on Purdue’s club team while earning her undergraduate degree. She didn't row in high school.
“Let me ask you,’ Mark begins. “If you’re at Michigan and you’re working to cure cancer, how would you feel if you saw the Olympic Team in Rio? Would you be sad that you missed it or didn’t try?”
“Now, what if you were at the Olympics and someone cures cancer on a team that you could’ve been on? How would you feel then?”
Across the table from the two of them was then-freshman coxswain Francesca Derteano. She piped up, “You can cure cancer any time, but you can only do the Olympics when you”re young!”
Both Elmore and Rothstein knew she was right.
To read more about Elmore's journey to Rio, click below.