Remembering rowing pioneer Carie Graves

At the age of 68 Carie Graves, a true pioneer for women’s rowing, has died.

From the United States, Graves Graves raced at the first ever Olympics that allowed women – Montreal 1976. There Graves was part of the bronze medal winning women’s eight crew. Making the United States team in 1980, Graves was one of the United States Olympic team members that did not go due to the boycott. Graves continued to race and in 1984 she won Olympic gold, again in the eight.

The year before the Montreal Olympics, Graves was stroke of the US women’s eight that went on to take a silver medal at the 1975 World Rowing Championships. This journey to silver is explained in Daniel Boyne’s book, ‘The Red Rose Crew’ with Graves as a central character.

Graves was one of the original indoor rowers to compete at the very first CRASH-Bs Indoor Rowing Sprints in 1981. The hammer that every winner receives is apt as Graves’ style was to hammer every stroke, giving it all. Many photos taken of her rowing show the grimace on her face of pure determination.

After retiring as an athlete, Graves stayed involved in rowing coaching at a number of universities. For 16 of those years, Graves was head coach at the University of Texas at Austin.

One of Graves’ athletes Renee Crowell wrote; “For me, like I’m sure she was for all her athletes, she was a role model. Carie was the strongest female I had ever met,

“Through her coaching, she taught me to dig deep, to find the place inside that could give more, even when my brain was telling me to stop…. Carie didn’t just want her athletes to be the best rowers they could be. She wanted us to be the best people we could be.”