If you think the competition to play for the Dream Team in the Olympics was fierce, you likely don’t know much about Women’s Eight Rowing. The US Women’s team, undefeated internationally since 2006 had just set a world’s record two months before the Olympic games. “And two of those women didn’t make the Olympic boat,’ Taylor Ritzel says. “It will give you an idea of how crazy it is to make the US Team.”
Ritzel did indeed make the team. But what’s even more extraordinary about her story is that she only started rowing five years earlier at age 18. Ritzel, once a competitive swimmer, was about to embark on her collegiate career when she could sense she wasn’t being recruited as strongly in her sport by the universities she wanted to attend.
Unbeknownst to her, Ritzel’s mom called Harvard, Princeton and Yale to see if there were any openings on their teams. Ritzel’s size (she’s 6-foot-2) and endurance from swimming and track made her a prime candidate. So prized was her athletic ability that Yale offered her a spot on the team without her ever having lifted an oar for tryouts.
At Yale, Ritzel’s athletic ability became readily apparent. And as she threw herself into learning and practicing the highly technical sport, she improved steadily and dramatically, earning a regular spot in the boat that would go onto win three national championships. Her meteoric rise earned her a trip to the Olympic Trials. Suddenly, at age 23, she found herself earning a spot on the team, and one of Team USA’s overwhelming favorites to win gold. “Being on a team that hadn’t lost in six years, that owned a world record, it’s like if you don’t win, you’re a failure.”
Ritzel and her team did indeed win Gold, defeating a Canadian team that had bested the USA’s time during qualifying rounds. Winning the Gold Medal, Ritzel felt her choice to switch to rowing was vindicated. “I didn’t want to give up swimming,” she says. “But once I started rowing, I completely fell in love with the sport. I still feel like I have a lot to learn.”
Ritzel plans on continuing to compete with Team USA, but as you might imagine, rowing isn’t the type of sport that brings you a lifetime of wealth. So after getting up at 5 a.m. to train for a few hours, she heads into work at the marketing department of Thuzio.com, the website that is creating an Internet platform to help athletes connect with fans and monetize their experience in their sport. “It’s been a great experience for me,” she says. “I really believe in their mission. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences with people and I’m sure many other athletes would as well. To get paid for it is almost a bonus.”
Ritzel will also continue to help raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research. She lost her mom to the disease in 2010 as she was training for the Olympics. “She was my inspiration to get into rowing.” Ritzel says. Despite all the success she has achieved, Ritzel has remained humble about her accomplishments, as she tells about one of her favorite post-Olympic moments—attending the Women’s Sports Foundation gala. “They announce your name and you walk on stage and it’s surreal,” Ritzel says. “You’re surrounded by the most amazing women in the history of sports. They talk about everything they’ve accomplished. All I could think to myself was, ‘Hey, I better get going! I’ve got a lot I need to do!’”
