DAYTON — Many young athletes dream of competing in the Olympics.
Most are not.
Getting there is a long, hard road, and few people know it better than Molly Brugeman.
Several hours a day, Molly Brugeman can be seen rowing.
After years of hard work and training, a Dayton native has just been selected to the U.S. Olympic rowing team.
The third of Mike and Beth Bruggeman's four children, she played all the usual sports, but she wasn't very good at them.
“If you had asked me back then which of my kids would grow up to be an elite athlete…'Well, it wouldn't be Molly,'” Mike said.
But at age 13, she tried rowing with coach Mike Miles and the Dayton Rowing Club and fell in love with it. It was like a duck to water.
She rowed all four years at Chaminade Julienne High School.
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She then won a rowing scholarship to attend her father's alma mater, the University of Notre Dame.
“I was named All-American three times. I also rowed on the under-23 varsity team every summer,” Morey said.
After graduating in 2014, I moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where I continue to train.
Competing with the U.S. national team took her all over the world.
“We've raced in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Italy, Austria and England,” Morey said.
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She has won gold medals twice at the Pan American Games, but has missed out on qualifying for the Olympics twice.
“I was removed from Rio. I was a reserve in Tokyo,” she said.
Her mother said the disappointment was so deep that Molly quit the coaching program, but encouraged her to try a third time.
“I think she would have regretted it if she had quit and never tried again. I'm so glad she did,” Beth said.
She learned she was selected for the 2024 Olympic team.
“I don’t think I can even pinpoint exactly what I felt,” Molly said.
The first call she made was to her biggest fan.
“He immediately started crying, and she started crying, and I started crying, too,” Beth recalled.
They will travel to Paris to watch their daughter compete and, if possible, hope to be on the medal stand.
Molly said she is now focused on the Olympics, but hopes to be able to spend time with her family afterwards.
