/
.
World Championships Recap: Three With UVa Ties Find Success
Story Links
CHARLOTTESVILLE – Former All-American rower and Charlottesville native Lindsay Shoop won her fourth-consecutive gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Poznan, Poland, last month. Rowing with the United States women’s eight, Shoop and the crew successfully defended their Olympic title.
Shoop has now won four-straight gold medals for the United States at the 2006 World Championships, the 2007 World Championships, the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships.
“Being a part of four-straight titles is an incredible honor that has resulted in international recognition,” Shoop said. “Commentators have begun to consider my teammates and I names you should recognize. It is certainly flattering as I remember watching World Championships and Olympic footage in the past and being in awe of the ‘big names.’ To have even one person feel about what my teammates and I have accomplished the same way I felt when I was a spectator is still not something I have fully wrapped my head around.”
In addition to Shoop, current UVa rowers Lauren Hutchins (North Vancouver, Canada) and Katrin Reinert (Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) also competed at the World Championships.
Hutchins, a senior captain and member of last year’s NCAA silver medalist Varsity Eight, rowed for her home country of Canada in the women’s eight. That crew made the ‘A’ final and finished sixth.
The competition in Poland was Hutchins’ second World Championships of the summer, as she also rowed in the women’s eight at the Under-23 World Championships in Racice, Czech Republic in July.
“It’s pretty amazing that Lauren did both,” head coach Kevin Sauer said. “And Lindsay Shoop, to win a fourth gold medal in a row, what she has done is just amazing. Her consistency over the years is amazing.”
“It was such a great experience to spend almost a month with the national team,” Hutchins said. “Being around Olympic athletes and competing at that level is very exciting. It’s also neat to know that other UVa athletes were there. Lindsay Shoop is an incredible athlete and an Olympic champion and she is a real role model in our program.”
Reinert, meanwhile, is a junior transfer from Germany. Rowing with the German women’s eight, Reinert and the German crew finished fourth in the ‘A’ final. Reinert represented Germany at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.