The Road to Rio: Updates on Princeton’s Olympic Hopefuls

Posted July 5, 2016:

Field hockey standouts Katie Reinprecht ’13, Julia Reinprecht ’14, and Kat Sharkey ’13 each earned spots on the U.S. Olympic Team. The Reinprechts both played for the United States at the 2012 London Olympics, while Sharkey, a longtime national-team player, will be making her Olympic debut in Rio. 

Lauren Wilkinson ’11 will row in Canada’s women’s eight at the Rio Olympics. Wilkinson won silver at the London Olympics in the same event. Of the 12 Princetonians who have qualified for Rio to date, six are rowers.

Three Princeton track and field alumni will compete in their event finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials later this week: Imani Oliver ’14 (women’s triple jump) and Ashley Higginson ’11 (women’s steeplechase) will be in action Thursday, while 2012 Olympian Donn Cabral ’12 (men's steeplechase) will run on Friday.

Posted June 23, 2016:

A pair of former Princeton lightweight crew teammates will represent the United States at the Olympics in the men’s lightweight coxless four: Robin Prendes ’11 and Tyler Nase ’13. Nase rowed in the Tigers’ lightweight eight in 2011, when Prendes stroked the crew. A year later, Prendes was rowing in London, leading the Americans to an eighth-place finish.

Posted June 20, 2016:

Two of Princeton’s 2012 Olympians have earned spots on the U.S. Rowing roster for this summer’s games in Rio de Janeiro: Gevvie Stone ’07 qualified in the women’s single-sculls at the Olympic Trials in April; and Glenn Ochal ’08, a bronze medalist in London with the men’s four, will compete this time with the U.S. men’s eight. Ochal and the American crew placed first in the final Olympic qualifier in Lucerne, Switzerland, in May. A third Olympic qualifier, Kate Bertko ’06 (women’s double sculls) is featured in PAW’s July 6 print issue.

Star goalie Ashleigh Johnson ’17 was officially named to the U.S. women’s water polo roster June 16. “It’s been really cool to compete at this level,” Johnson said in a video interview with SwimSwam.com, “and to represent everything that came before me and everything that Team USA is.”

Women’s soccer alumna Diana Matheson ’08, a Canadian Olympic and World Cup veteran, was named to her country’s Rio roster June 20. In 2012, Matheson scored in the closing minutes against France to lead Canada to the bronze medal in London.

Women’s epeeist Kat Holmes ’17 will carry on Princeton fencing’s Olympic tradition in Rio — she secured her spot on the U.S. team in April. As ESPNW.com found out recently, Holmes has an interesting mix of pump-up songs, ranging from Disney musicals to John Legend.

The Washington Post visited the U.S. women’s field hockey training center in Lancaster County, Pa., not far from the hometowns of three alumni Olympic hopefuls, Katie Reinprecht ’13, Julia Reinprecht ’14, and Kathleen Sharkey ’13. All three were selected to the U.S. roster for a series of June matches in Europe and the Champions Trophy tournament in London.

All-American runner Peter Callahan ’13 has received approval to compete for Belgium, his mother’s home country, according to FloTrack.org. His next goal: Meet the Olympic standard of 3:36.19 in the 1,500-meter run and earn a trip to Rio.

Fellow track standout Ashley Higginson ’11 has been writing about her training for the U.S. Olympic Trials for SI.com. Her latest post covered a busy spring season that included steeplechase events at Princeton and the Penn Relays.

Hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe ’17, who became the first Princeton woman to win an NCAA title in track and field in 2014, has been training at home in New Zealand in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. She is competing at meets in Europe this month.

For Jamaican triple-jumper Damon McLean ’14, training for an Olympic bid has involved discipline, creative fundraising, and “lots of tears,” according to a story from KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Ariz., where he’s been training this year. 

Current women’s basketball player Tia Weledji ’18 represented Cameroon at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in France. The team was eliminated in the group stage after losing games to Argentina and Turkey June 13 and 15.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are sending 17 current, past, or future Tigers to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., including alumni Lisa Boyce ’14 and Teo D’Alessandro ’16. Visit goprincetontigers.com for the full list and information on viewing parties for alumni and fans.