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Rowing’s Kuzzy earns gold medal over summer

By Amy Mulligan, Athletics Media Relations

The common theme in the offseason for the Virginia rowing team can be summed up in one word: Gold.

Two former All-Americans and one current first-year rower all tasted the ultimate success in their respective events, whether it was at the Olympic Games, the Under-23 World Championships or the World Rowing Junior Championships.

The youngest member of the trio was freshman Martie Kuzzy, who is now in the midst of her first year of fall practice with the squad. A Minneapolis, Minn., native, Kuzzy spent her summer rowing with the junior women’s eight, which made history at the 2008 FISA World Rowing Junior Championships in Linz, Austria, by becoming the first American team to win the gold medal in the event.

In a come-from-behind victory over defending world champion Romania, the crew of young women pulled out a win for the United States. The U.S. crew was third out of the blocks, trailing behind Germany and Romania at the 500-meter mark. By the halfway point, Germany fell back, allowing the U.S. and Romania crews to battle it out for first place. A decisive move for the U.S. at the 1,750-meter mark brought the crew out front, where it continued to take seats through the final stretch and win by two seconds.

“Our race was just incredible,” Kuzzy said. “It was different than any other racing I had done because in the middle of the race I just really realized that all we had to do was do what we do everyday in practice. So we were calm about it and came from behind for the win. Going across that line first was so exciting.”

For Virginia, Kuzzy’s gold-medal winning performance with the U.S. junior women’s eight capped off a summer of international success that was highlighted by Class of 2003’s Lindsay Shoop’s gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and Class of 2008’s Kelsie Chaudoin’s gold medal at the Under-23 World Championships.

Kuzzy knows she joined an elite group of rowers with UVa associations with her gold medal, and says that factored into her decision to row at the University of Virginia.

“I heard about Virginia during my first year of rowing with the junior team,” Kuzzy said. “I had always wanted to come out east to a good rowing program, and UVa is the best of the best.”

Kuzzy’s summer of rowing, which began with a mini-camp in Chicago as the initial tryout for the junior team, prepared her for her schedule this fall of managing rowing and school. Following her Chicago tryout, she headed to Connecticut College for a two-week tryout process.

“Those two weeks were extremely difficult and very intense,” Kuzzy said. “They really test your strength and how hard you can go.”

Once making the final team, Kuzzy spent two weeks training at Princeton, two weeks training at Connecticut College and two weeks training in Austria in preparation for the championships.

Virginia kicks off the fall rowing season on Oct. 26 with a trip to the Princeton Chase, and Kuzzy looks to factor into the varsity races.

“I am so happy I came to Virginia,” Kuzzy said. “I’ve never rowed competitively during the school year, so it’s a little difficult putting together the level of rowing I did over the summer with school. But it’s going really well so far.”