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Date: August 13, 2004
Contact: Bill Sodoma

 

Colby graduate Gehman to compete in second Summer Olympics

Hilary Gehman is in her second Summer Olympics in rowing competition since graduating from Colby College in 1993.

Gehman is in Athens, Greece for the current Summer Olympics after making the team as well in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She will race with her three teammates in the quadruple sculls. Rowing takes place August 19, 21, and 22.

Gehman and her crew finished in fifth place in the quadruple sculls at the Sydney Olympics. She was part of a boat that took fourth place at the 1999 World Championships and then Gehman earned her first major international competition medal when her crew took third place and the bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships.

The United States has had tough luck in the Summer Olympics in quadruple sculls. The U.S. has only one medal in the event when the four-woman crew took the silver 20 years ago at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Gehman, a sociology major at Colby, rowed for the club team since rowing was not a varsity sport at the time. The Colby 2003 national championship women's crew rode in a boat called the "Hilary S. Gehman '93" during the Mules' title win in Indianapolis.

Gehman is the second Colby athlete to compete in two Olympic Games. Sebsibe Mamo '70 ran in Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico City in 1968. Colby's three other known Olympians are Marc Gilbertson '91 in Nordic skiing (Nagano 1998), Joe Wallace '45 in ice hockey (London 1948), and Elbridge B. Ross '35 in ice hockey (Berlin 1936).

Gehman was born in Shirley, Mass., and currently resides in Princeton, N.J.