Harriet Morris "Holly" Metcalf (born March 25, 1958) is a six-time USA national/ Olympic team member in

women's rowing Women's rowing is the participation of women in the sport of rowing. Women row in all boat classes, from single scull to coxed eights, across the same age ranges and standards as men, from junior amateur through university-level to elite athlete ...

, who won a gold medal in

rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics Rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, United States featured 14 events in total, for both men and women. Events were held at Lake Casitas. Due to the Eastern Bloc boycott of these Olympics, some of the strongest rowing ...

for the

women's eight An eight is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing (crew). It is designed for eight rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or "cox". Each of the eight rowers has one oar. The rowers, who sit in ...

Background

Metcalf received her B.A. in Music and English from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

in 1981 and a masters in risk and prevention and a certificate of advanced study in human development and psychology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Between 1981 and 1987, she won three silver and one bronze

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medals. She won an Olympic gold medal in the U.S. women's eight in 1984. She is currently the founder and executive director of the Row As One Institute, the original purpose of which was to serve masters women rowers. As director of Row As One, she founded G-ROW Boston, a rowing program for girls in the Boston public schools. G-ROW, which also incorporates academics and relationship-building, is now a program of Community Rowing, Inc. She also founded WeCanRow (Women Enduring Cancer Row), a program for women breast cancer survivors. Founded in Boston in 2002, WeCanRow now has chapters around the U.S. In 2007, Metcalf was hired as head coach for the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

women's openweight crew. She was a panelist at the 2003 National Gay and Lesbian Athletics Conference in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, on a panel of

LGBT Olympians There have been 622 modern Olympians (including Paralympians, Summer Olympic athletes and artists, and Winter Olympians) who have identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, non-binary, queer, and/or having an intersex ...

that also included swimmer

Mark Tewksbury Mark Roger Tewksbury, (born February 7, 1968) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of ''How It's Made'', ...

and high jumper

Brian Marshall Brian Aubrey Marshall (born April 24, 1973) is an American musician and songwriter best known as the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. Early life Brian Aubrey Marshall was born April 24, 1973, in Jackson, Missi ...

."GLAF convention brings gay athletes to Boston"
''

Bay Windows A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

'', March 27, 2003.

Private life

Metcalf is openly

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

. Holly now works as a coach for MIT rowing.

References

External links

MIT Biography
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MHC Crew Celebrates Twenty-Five Years on the River
' * 1958 births Living people American female rowers Harvard University alumni Lesbian sportswomen American LGBT sportspeople Mount Holyoke College alumni Rowers at the 1984 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in rowing World Rowing Championships medalists for the United States Lincoln School (Providence, Rhode Island) alumni LGBT rowers 21st-century American women {{US-rowing-Olympic-medalist-stub