With the first week of the Olympic Games in Rio in the books, multiple Dartmouth alumni have already posted stong performances.
Evelyn Stevens ’05 competed in both the women’s road race and individual time trial this past week. On Sunday, Aug. 7, she placed 12th in the women’s road race, completing the 85-mile distance in 3 hours, 52 minutes and 43 seconds.Stevens was just over a minute behind all three medalists, the fastest of which stopped the clock at 3 hours, 51 minutes and 27 seconds. Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands emerged victorious with Emma Johansson of Sweden and Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy taking the silver and bronze medals, respectively. Stevens then returned three days later to place 10th in the women’s individual time trial on Wednesday, Aug. 10, with a time of 46:00.08. Fellow American Kristin Armstrong took the gold medal, completing the distance in 44:26.42.
Stevens, a former investment banker who quit her day job to pursue a professional career in cycling, announced that she will be retiring at the end of this year in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 11. Stevens was a member of the tennis team during her time at Dartmouth, and picked up cycling after graduating as a way of staying in shape. This is her second time competing at the Olympic Games.
Josh Konieczny ’13 and partner Andrew Campbell, Jr. qualified for the men’s lightweight double sculls A group semis on Thursday, Aug. 11. Konieczny and Campbell placed second in their Semifinal A/B, completing the 2-kilometer distance in 6:35.19. They will contend for medals in the A Final with the second-fastest seed time on Friday, Aug. 12 at 10:10 a.m. Konieczny was a captain of the men’s lightweight rowing team during his time at Dartmouth.
Another alumnus of the Big Green’s lightweight rowing team, Anthony Fahden ’08, helped the men’s lightweight four team finish fourth in the B Final on Thursday, Aug. 11. The team completed the 2-kilometer distance in 6:36.93. Switzerland took home the gold medal with a time of 6:20.51, with Denmark and France taking the silver and bronze medals, respectively. This is Fahden’s second trip to the Olympics; he was a member of the United States’ team that finished eighth in London four years ago.
Madison Hughes ’15 captained the U.S. men’s Rugby Sevens team to a ninth-place finish with its victory against Spain on Thursday, Aug. 11, with a final score of 24 to 12. Hughes, a former captain of the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club and the current captain of the U.S. team, started as a back in all five games. The national team from Fiji won the first gold medal in the country’s history with its 43-7 rout of Great Britain, which took silver. South Africa took bronze by defeating Japan 54-14 in the third-place game. This year marks the first time that rugby sevens has been played in the Olympics. In 1924, the last 15-a-side tournament was held as part of the Games.
With nine days of competition remaining, three Dartmouth alumni have yet to compete. Alexi Pappas ’12 will compete in the 10,000-meter final on the track for Greece on Friday, Aug. 12 at 10:10 a.m. Abbey D’Agostino ’14 makes her Olympic debut in the 5,000-meter first round race on Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 9:30 a.m., and Sean Furey ’08 will begin the qualifying rounds in the men’s javelin throw on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 8:30 p.m.
