Despite Dartmouth’s small size and relatively isolated location, the College will be well represented by seven alumni at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this August. During their time at Dartmouth, the seven Olympians competed for the Big Green in varsity and club sports. There are three representatives from the women’s track and field and cross country teams, two from men’s lightweight rowing, one from women’s tennis and one from the men’s rugby team. In preparation for this historic summer, The Dartmouth will be profiling each of these athletes individually and their journey to Rio in greater depth, but for now, meet the seven athletes who will be representing the United States and Greece as well as the quaint College on the Hill.
Abbey D’Agostino ’14
After a whirlwind finish at the Olympic Trials on July 10, Abbey D’Agostino ’14, the most decorated student-athlete in the Ivy League, will be representing the United States on the track. In the final 100 meters of the 5,000-meter race, her hopes to qualify for the biggest stage of her young career seemed out of reach after she finished fifth in the finals at Hayward Field. Since Team USA only takes the top three finishers, her only hope was that Molly Huddle and Emily Infield would withdraw from the 5,000 in Rio to focus on the 10,000-meter run they had already qualified for. The nation waited, and Big Green fans cheered when Huddle and Infield, who finished first and fourth respectively on Saturday, decided not to compete in the 5,000 in Rio. The spot was well earned for D’Agostino, who placed fifth and missed qualifying for the Olympics in 2012 by less than a second in the same event, while only a sophomore at Dartmouth. The Topsfield, Mass. native was a seven-time national champion as well as a 16-time Ivy League champion as an undergraduate at Dartmouth.
Sean Furey ’04
D’Agostino will join Sean Furey ’04, Th ’05, who will compete in the javelin for his second Olympic appearance. Although he finished 11th at the Olympic Trials on July 4 with a throw of 69.45 meters, he was selected to compete thanks to a throw he made earlier in the year that meets the requisite Olympic standard distance of 83.0 meters. Furey is looking to improve upon his rank from London, where he placed 37th with a throw of 72.81 meters. At Dartmouth, the Metheun, Mass. native won an Ivy League title in the javelin in 2005 and set the school record of 73.68 meters in the event.
Alexi Pappas ’12
Alexi Pappas ’12 will represent Greece in the 10,000-meter race and compete against the USA’s Huddle, Infield and Marielle Hall. Pappas, who is a dual citizen of both America and Greece, set the Greek national record in the 10,000 on May 1 with a time of 31:46:83. She attended Dartmouth until 2012 and transferred to the University of Oregon, where she spent the remainder of her NCAA eligibility competing. The first-time Olympian, who majored in English with a concentration in creative writing while at Dartmouth, competes for the Oregon Track Club and is an accomplished filmmaker and star of the recently-released film “Tracktown” (2016).
Anthony Fahden ’08
Anthony Fahden ’08 will represent America for a second time on the lightweight four team. Fahden’s third-place finish at the 2016 World Rowing Cup in Varese, Italy this past April earned him a spot on the U.S. National team. With four more years of experience, Fahden will look to improve upon his eighth-place finish in the 2012 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in London. As a member of the Big Green, Fahden led the men’s varsity eight to the 2007 EARC Eastern Sprints title and earned All-Ivy honors.
Josh Konieczny ’13
The men’s lightweight rowing team will see another former member compete in Josh Konieczny ’13, who will represent the U.S. in the double sculls. A former captain of the lightweight rowing team from Millbury, Ohio, Konieczny partnered with Andrew Campbell, Jr., winning the double sculls at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials with a time of 6 minutes, 32.86 seconds. After earning eighth- and fourth-place finishes at last year’s Worlds and the World Cup event, respectively, Konieczny and Campbell, Jr. are sure to be determined to improve upon their recent results. At Dartmouth, Konieczny majored in economics and competed on the varsity lightweight team that placed third at the 2013 Eastern Sprints and at the 2011 IRA Championships.
Madison Hughes ’15
A standout during his undergraduate years, Madison Hughes ’15 will lead the U.S. Men’s Rugby Sevens in the first Olympics to include rugby since 1924. As the captain of the team since his senior year at Dartmouth, Hughes led the team to a first-place finish at the North American Caribbean Rugby Association Sevens Championships in June 2015 to earn a spot in Rio. As a member of the men’s club rugby team, Hughes, a fullback, was named to the Collegiate Rugby Championship All-Tournament team three times during his time at Dartmouth, missing the championships in his senior year, coincidentally, to help the U.S. team qualify for Rio.
Evelyn Stevens ’05
After taking perhaps the most serendipitous path to the Olympics of this year’s group, Evelyn Stevens ’05 will represent America in the cycling road race. At Dartmouth, Stevens competed in tennis and graduated with a major in government and minor in women’s and gender studies. She went on to work on Wall Street, stumbled into cycling by chance and quit her job to focus on her cycling career. 2016 marks Stevens’ second year as an Olympian after placing 24th in London four years ago, just 27 seconds behind the gold medalist Marianne Vos.
