The winning Washington Alumni boat, with UW alum and retired HOCR Executive Director Fred Schoch, left.

Washington Wins Battle of the Olympians

Yale is Harvard’s great rival, of course, but for the former Crimson oarsmen rowing in the Alumni Eights, their focus this year was on Washington. And Washington’s on Harvard.

The two schools had won the last three races, Washington in 2021-22, Harvard in 2023, each race setting a new course record. This year, many of the rowers on each school’s roster were coming from an Olympic run. In August, many were teammates working together in the United States bronze-medal boat. But there was to be no friendship this time around. Just lots of smack talking, starting with, as it always has in these alumni races, Harvard’s very name.  The Harvard alumni row under the flag of Ex Nemo—look it up, talking smack is talking smack, even when it’s done in Latin.

“We all want to get the title back after coming in second,” said Washington rower and current Northeastern Men’s Head Coach Alex Perkins before Saturday’s race.

These are not friendly, “buddy boats,” as many alumni boats are. To get a seat in one of these boats you better bring a pretty good resume.

“Historically if you have raced either at the World Championships or at the Olympics that same year, you’re guaranteed a spot in the boat,” said Evan Olsen of Washington, part of the Team USA bronze-medal eight in Paris. “I’ve talked to athletes that I know in other boats that are racing, and we’re the one that has the most strict standards.”

Lacking the Olympic/World Championships pedigree you must prove yourself another way to get a seat in the Washington boat. But there was little room this year. Washington had seven Olympians in the boat, who between them had won eight Olympic medals. Harvard was not exactly rowing a pick-up lineup. The Crimson had five Olympians and four medals rowing for them.

“All these guys are fit so it’s kind of just making sure they have enough gas in the tank for the last mile,” said Harvard coxswain Cole Durbin.

It quickly became apparent that there was not enough gas in the Harvard tank this day. Washington roared to a win, setting a new course record of 14:07, the fourth course record in as many years. Ex Nemo faded to fifth, behind alumni from Brown, Yale and Princeton.

“I think it’s a really big one [win] because in our boat we have seven Olympic medalists, so we just want to prove that all that work was still there and add to the legacy,” Washington coxswain and Olympic bronze medalist Rielly Milne said.