Esther Lofgren ’07-’09 Rows for Gold

On July 29, 2012, at 11:30 a.m. local time, Esther Lofgren ’07-’09 will realize an Olympic dream 28 years in the making. That is when the heats of the women’s eight rowing begin in the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London.

Lofgren's position on the eight is the pinnacle of a competitive career that began after her sophomore year in 2006 for the USA Under-23 team. But after taking time off of school to try-out for the Beijing Olympics in 2008—falling just short—Lofgren returned to school with an unsure future in rowing.

"[Not making that team] definitely is something that has motivated me over the last four years," Lofgren said. "In terms of when you’re at that point in an erg test and you need to find that little something to push yourself just a little farther, or those rare moments when you're not sure if this is what you want to do anymore, I definitely thought about making this team, and going to the Olympics."

Lofgren is joining the defending-champion USA team that looks to extend its dominance in the discipline.

Among the women on that boat four years ago was fellow alumna Caryn Davies ’04-’05, who also earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004. Davies will be returning to the Olympics for the third time as she and Lofgren book-end a boat that is both the six-time defending World Champion and the favorite for Olympic gold in London.

Five of the eight women return from the boat that captured the first Olympic gold for the United States in this event four years ago, and all eight members of the crew have competed at the World Championship level.

FAMILY TIES

Though Lofgren did not seriously consider the Olympics until making the U-23 National Team after her sophomore year, the quest for Olympic glory in the Lofgren family goes back to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, when her mother Christine, now a lecturer in cognitive science at University of California Irvine, narrowly missed out on making the Olympic team as the final cut in the women’s quadruple sculls.

“Both my husband and I rowed at MIT,” Christine said. “After college, we both raced at a national level, and then when I didn’t make the Olympic team in '84, Esther was conceived. She was a post-Olympic baby.”

Both Esther and her parents are quick to emphasize that there was no pressure to pursue the Olympics, or even rowing, from anyone in the family. But the experience of growing up with world-class athletes in the same sport certainly has its benefits—especially when Esther was one of the last cuts for the 2008 Olympic team that went on to win gold in Beijing.

“Being able to share all of these experiences with my parents has been really great, because not a lot of people have parents who pursued the same kind of things as they did in this arena,” Lofgren said.

“Being able to talk with my mom after being cut in 2008, which was pretty devastating, really made me think about things and focus myself for London.”

BLACK AND WHITE

Both Lofgren and Davies were recruited and coached by Radcliffe heavyweight coach Liz O’Leary. In 26 seasons at the helm of the Black and White heavyweight program, O’Leary has coached 13 Olympic and World Championship rowers and a team national championship that included Davies in 2003.

While in college, both women took time off to row with the national team—Davies in 2004 for the Olympics in Athens, and Lofgren in 2008. In their respective Radcliffe careers, the Black and White went a combined 58-23-1.

Davies declined to comment for this story.

"A lot of the things I learned at Radcliffe about being a good teammate about being part of a successful team, that’s all stuff that hasn’t changed much, coming here," Lofgren said. "I think there’s definitely alarge overlap in what makes you successful."

Davies is already the most decorated former Radcliffe rower on the international level in program history. If the USA wins the eight in London, Lofgren will join Davies as the only female Olympic gold medalists to have once called Weld Boathouse their home. Two other Black and White rowers have Olympic medals: Michelle Guerette ’02, who earned her silver in Beijing, and Anna Seaton ’86, a bronze medalist in the doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

MAKING ENDS MEET

In pursuing an international career in rowing, Lofgren, like so many other Olympians, has been forced to put other professional ambitions on hold.

“I’ve known from the beginning that it’s not a money-maker in this country,” Lofgren said. “It’s not something I can do forever, eventually I have to settle down and, you know, make money, but it’s so rewarding that it absolutely makes up for it.”

Since graduation in 2009, Lofgren has worked as a barista, tutor, sandwich-maker, and babysitter, always looking for jobs that will pay enough to get by while maintaining flexible hours to allow for the training that is necessary to compete at such a high level.

Lofgren is currently employed by US Rowing, serving as Athlete Media and Communications Coordinator. One of her primary responsibilities in this role is expanding rowing’s visibility through social media.

“You know there’s a fairly large community of rowers out there, and it’s still growing, but it’s not very centralized at all,” Lofgren said. “So we’re trying to link in the whole community around this build up to the Olympics.”

One way in which she is doing that is by blogging her experiences on a number of sites, including in the Huffington Post, US Rowing and her own blog, "Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger."

Lofgren began blogging while still in college, at her mother's suggestion, as a favor to younger rowers she was mentoring who wanted advice on training and managing time between rowing and academics. Though she describes herself as a “pretty private person,” her blogging audience has expanded substantially.

“So far, I have about 50,000 hits, which isn’t really that much in the grand scheme of the internet,” Lofgren said. “But it is a lot for me thinking it’s still just my mom reading it.”

GEARING UP FOR LONDON

Lofgren and Davies are currently in Princeton, N.J., with the rest of Team USA training for the fast-approaching Games.

“We’ve done a lot of work the last four years, with fitness and skill,” Lofgren said. “So now we’re just doing the final tune-up stuff and really coming together as a crew.”

The USA has dominated this event over the past six years, winning every major championship in that time span. The biggest competition in London will most likely be the Canadians, who came up just short against the Americans in 2011.

When the USA gets on the water in London, Lofgren’s parents will be there to watch her Olympic dream realized.

“On some level, most of us—and I might include myself in that—would be just so thrilled to be where she is, that the medal would be icing on the cake,” Christine said. “But I think given how they‘ve worked and who they are and the mentality of the people in this boat, there’s got to be a medal and I think they’re definitely thinking gold.”

There will definitely be a bulls-eye on the Americans’ back in London, but Lofgren and company would have it no other way.

“I think coming in with our top record and being the defending champions, there’s definitely an expectation,” Esther said. “But that’s something that motivates us, to be the favorite. We just want to go out there and race as hard and fast as we can, and everything else will fall into place.”

−Staff writer Alexander Koenig can be reached at akoenig@college.harvard.edu.