Dartmouth rower joins world championship team
Emily Dreissigacker ’11 will compete in the quadruple scull event of the FISA World Championships with the US National Rowing Team later this mont
By Sam Bean
Published on Friday, July 17, 2009
Dartmouth rower Emily Dreissigacker ’11 has been selected by the U.S. women’s under-23 National Rowing Team to compete in the quadruple scull at the FISA World Championships, the team announced July 13. The competition is scheduled for July 23-26 in Racice, Czech Republic, according to the Dartmouth Athletics web site.
Dreissigacker will be joined at the competition by recent teammate and Rhodes scholar Kathryn Twyman ’09, who was named to the Canadian national team, according to the team web site.
The FISA U-23 World Rowing Championships are a showcase of up-and-coming rowers, many of whom will be competing for spots at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Approximately 40 countries and 600 athletes participate annually, according to the FISA web site.
The athletes not only compete for themselves, but also race to bring home the Nations Cup, which is awarded to the country that accumulates the most points in the U-23 World Rowing Championships, according to the site.
“We’re incredibly proud of Emily,” women’s rowing head coach Wendy Levash said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. “It’s exciting to see a Dartmouth rower compete at that level, and it sends a message that rowing at Dartmouth prepared her well.”
Dreissigacker, who was named a first team All-American this year, said she became interested in crew through her parents, both of whom were rowers.
Her selection for the National Team followed from her competitive rowing experiences in high school, where she was a member of the Junior National Team, she said. That experience led her to submit her erg score — a quantified measure of rowing ability — to the U.S. Rowing Association. Based on her score, she was invited to the U-23 selection camp where she earned a spot in the quad scull.
Dreissigacker said she hopes to build on the success the U.S. women’s quadruple scull team achieved in 2007 when the team brought home the meet’s gold medal.
“I’m excited to see what we can do against the rest of the world,” Dreissigacker said, adding later that, while the team hopes to win, “you don’t really know anything about your competition going into it.”
Dreissigacker said her success was largely due to the influence of her parents, teammates and coaches, although she said she also had to overcome her own “laziness” and fully commit herself to her training.
Levash said she believes that Dreissigacker’s experience will be beneficial as the team looks forward to next season.
“This experience will undoubtedly make her a tougher racer and a more determined athlete, and that will definitely filter through to her teammates,” Levash said in the e-mail. “It also sends a message to her teammates that the national team can be within reach.”
Dreissigacker’s commitment and work ethic has been an important part of the women’s rowing squad’s past success, she said.
“If she’s doing an extra workout, she always invites a teammate or two along,” Levash said. “She’s played a big role in elevating the team’s commitment to training.”
Dreissigacker said she hopes that her performance on the U-23 National Team will allow her to continue advancing in the rowing world. She would also like to continue rowing after graduation from Dartmouth, she said.
“I’ve got quite a ways to go before I get to that point,” she said.