Madison, Wisconsin – Two Wisconsin graduates, Sophia Vitas and Maddie Wanamaker, have been selected to be members of the 2024 U.S. Olympic rowing team, USRowing announced Monday.
They are among the first 21 people named to the rowing team.
Wanamaker will be competing in her second consecutive Olympics after finishing seventh in the women's four events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Neenah native is an internationally decorated rower, most recently finishing fourth in the women's four events at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and winning gold in the women's four events at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II. Wanamaker, currently a six-time selection to the U.S. Senior National Team, began rowing as a walk-on at Wisconsin State University in 2013 and led the team to NCAA top-10 finishes in 2016 and 2017. She is one of 13 female players. Who will make up the four women's teams and eight women's teams in Paris, but it has not yet been decided which events she will compete in.
Vitas, who currently competes on the U.S. Senior National Team five times, will make her Olympic debut in the women's double sculls. In September, she won a bronze medal in the women's double scull at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, helping America earn a spot in the Olympic rowing division. The Franklin native began rowing as a college walk-on in 2013, leading the Novice Eight to the Big Ten Championship title in 2014 and leading the second Varsity Eight to the NCAA Championship in 2016. He led them to a 4th place finish in the Petit Final.
Vitas will become the 19th female rower from Wisconsin to make the Olympic team, including boycotts and alternates, making her the 32nd total of Wisconsin rowers, both male and female.
Wisconsin's first female Olympians, Carrie Graves, Peggy McCarthy, and Jackie Zock, all won bronze medals in the women's eight events at the 1976 Olympics, which also included the women's event in Montreal. California State University's first Olympian was Stewart MacDonald, who led the men's pair to a fifth-place finish at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Sixty-seven athletes, including six Badgers, have been invited to the 2024 Olympic Trials Camp, which will be held March 3-24 at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.
The camp has selected women's double sculls, lightweight women's double sculls, four women, four men, and eight women to participate in this summer's Paris 2024 Olympics.
The campaign also selected eight men to compete in the 2024 World Rowing Olympic Final Qualifying Regatta to be held May 19-21 in Switzerland, qualifying them to represent the United States at the Olympics.
The men's and women's quadruple sculls crews who will compete in the 2024 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Trials, to be held April 4-7 in Sarasota, Fla., are also expected to emerge from the camp. These winners will compete in the final Olympic qualifying regatta and earn Olympic qualification for rowing.
The Olympic women's single sculls, women's pairs and men's pairs will also be selected at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. The complete Olympic team will be determined by June 7th.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will be held in France from July 26th to August 11th. Final selection for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team requires approval from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
