vlog

NOWCAST vlog News at 6am Weekday Mornings
Watch on Demand
Advertisement

'It's a passion': Rowing duo from Massachusetts to compete at Summer Olympics in Tokyo
Bob Halloran
'It's a passion': Rowing duo from Massachusetts to compete at Summer Olympics in Tokyo
HERE ON CHANNEL 5, COVERAGE BEGINS AT 8:00. THE 2020 SUMMER OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES WILL ARRIVE IN TOKYO A YEAR LATE. COMPETITION SET TO START THE LAST WEEK OF JULY AND A COUPLE OF VERY FAST ROWERS FROM NEWTON AND WESTON, MASS WILL GO THERE AND GO FOR THE GOLD. BOTH HAVE ROAD DIFFERENT ROADS TO THE OLYMPICS. ONE PERSON COMES FROM OLYMPIC STOCK, BOTH OF HER PARENTS WERE OLYMPIC ROWERS AND HER DAD IS NOT HER COACH. >> HE IS DEFINITELY THE BOSS AND HE KNOWS BEST. HE DOES LISTEN TO INPUT, WHICH I APPRECIATE AND IT IS A BIT OF A PARTNERSHIP. >> HER OTHER PARTNER TOOK UP ROWING AS A YOUNG TEENAGER AND THE DREAM BEGAN SOON THEREAFTER. >> I WAS ABLE TO SEE OLYMPIC ROWERS. IT IS ACCESSIBLE TO YOU, SO IF YOU CAN SEE IT, YOU CAN BECOME IT. >> SHE HAS BECOME IT TO THREE TIMES NOW, RACING IN THE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 AND TAING HOME A SILVER MEDAL FOR YEARS AGO IN RIO. MEANWHILE, THIS IS KRISTI’S FIRST TRIP TO THE OLYMPICS AND SHE WILL BE LEANING ON ONE’S EXPERIENCE AND NOW INCLUDING THE TRAINING. >> I AM CHOOSING TO DO THIS AND THAT I GET TO DO IT. IT IS NOT A SACRIFICE SO MUCH AS THAT’S >> A CHOICE. IT DOES NOT FEEL LIKE A JOB, IT IS A PASSION. >> WHEN YOU ARE OUT ON THE WATER TRYING TO GO FAST, ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS TRYING TO GO FAST. GET THE BLADE INTO THE WATER, GET THE BLADE OUT OF THE WATER. IN THE BACK OF THEIR MINDS, BOTH OF THEM ALWAYS HAD THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GETTING TO TOKYO. >> THE LAST 10 STROKES OF OUR TRIALS RACE, SHE YELLED TOKYO. >> THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT IT. >> IT WAS -- AT THAT POINT, SOMETHING WOULD HAVE CATASTROPHIC WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAPPEN FOR US TO LOSE, AND IT WAS A PRETTY EXCITING LAST 10 STROKES. >> IT IS HER FIRST OLYMPICS, AND IT WILL BE THE OTHER PERSON’S LAST, AND SHE SAYS IT IS TIME TO PURSUE HER MEDICAL CAREER. IT WOULD BE
Advertisement
'It's a passion': Rowing duo from Massachusetts to compete at Summer Olympics in Tokyo
Bob Halloran
The 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo will be held this summer after being delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Olympic competition is set to start in the last week of July and two rowers from Massachusetts will be competing for a gold medal when the games begin.Gevvie Stone, of Newton, and Kristina Wagner, of Weston, are competing as a team in the women's double sculls, but they have taken different roads on their journey to the 2020 Olympics.Both of Stone's parents, Gregg Stone and Lisa Hansen Stone, were Olympic Rowers and her father is her coach."So he is definitely the boss and he knows best," Stone said. "He does listen to input, though, which I appreciate, and it's a bit of a partnership."Wagner, meanwhile, took up rowing as a young teenager and her Olympic dream started soon thereafter."I was able to see Olympic rowers on the Charles (River). It's accessible to you," Wagner said. "So if you can see it, you can become it."Stone will be participating in her third Olympics after competing at the 2012 London Games and winning silver in the single sculls at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Wagner, however, will be making her first trip to the Olympics and she says she will be leaning on Stone's experience in July and in the present while they row about 100 miles per week in training."I'm choosing to do this and I get to do it, so it's not a sacrifice so much as a choice," Wagner said."It's a better way to put it, and it is (a choice)," Stone said. "It doesn't feel like a job. It's a passion."When they are competing, the duo says they are solely focused on the task at hand, but they admit they always had the ultimate goal of getting to the 2020 Olympics in the back of their minds."In the last 10 strokes of our trial race, Kristi did yell 'Tokyo!'" Stone said."But that was the first time I even thought about it," Wagner said."It was. I mean, at that point, something catastrophic would have had to happen for us to lose," Stone added. "It was a pretty exciting last 10 strokes."While it will be Wagner's first Olympics, Stone says it will be her final Olympic competition.Stone will be 36 years old when they arrive in Tokyo and says it is time to fully pursue her medical career. She put her multiyear residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on hold in order to make one more run at the Olympics, so she hopes to have a gold medal hung around her neck and have a stethoscope take its place.

The 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo will be held this summer after being delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advertisement

Olympic competition is set to start in the last week of July and two rowers from Massachusetts will be competing for a gold medal when the games begin.

Gevvie Stone, of Newton, and Kristina Wagner, of Weston, are competing as a team in the women's double sculls, but they have taken different roads on their journey to the 2020 Olympics.

Both of Stone's parents, Gregg Stone and Lisa Hansen Stone, were Olympic Rowers and her father is her coach.

"So he is definitely the boss and he knows best," Stone said. "He does listen to input, though, which I appreciate, and it's a bit of a partnership."

Wagner, meanwhile, took up rowing as a young teenager and her Olympic dream started soon thereafter.

"I was able to see Olympic rowers on the Charles (River). It's accessible to you," Wagner said. "So if you can see it, you can become it."

Stone will be participating in her third Olympics after competing at the 2012 London Games and winning silver in the single sculls at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Wagner, however, will be making her first trip to the Olympics and she says she will be leaning on Stone's experience in July and in the present while they row about 100 miles per week in training.

"I'm choosing to do this and I get to do it, so it's not a sacrifice so much as a choice," Wagner said.

"It's a better way to put it, and it is (a choice)," Stone said. "It doesn't feel like a job. It's a passion."

Massachusetts natives Gevvie Stone, of Newton, and Kristina Wagner, of Weston, will compete in rowing at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were delayed until July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hearst Owned
Massachusetts natives Gevvie Stone, of Newton (left), and Kristina Wagner, of Weston, will compete in rowing at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were delayed until July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When they are competing, the duo says they are solely focused on the task at hand, but they admit they always had the ultimate goal of getting to the 2020 Olympics in the back of their minds.

"In the last 10 strokes of our trial race, Kristi did yell 'Tokyo!'" Stone said.

"But that was the first time I even thought about it," Wagner said.

"It was. I mean, at that point, something catastrophic would have had to happen for us to lose," Stone added. "It was a pretty exciting last 10 strokes."

While it will be Wagner's first Olympics, Stone says it will be her final Olympic competition.

Stone will be 36 years old when they arrive in Tokyo and says it is time to fully pursue her medical career. She put her multiyear residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on hold in order to make one more run at the Olympics, so she hopes to have a gold medal hung around her neck and have a stethoscope take its place.