Esther Lofgren

[2] Introduced to the sport in 1998, Lofgren began rowing at the Newport Aquatic Center, where Olympic Gold Medalist Xeno Müller coached her for a season.

[4] Lofgren continued rowing at Harvard University, where she was twice named a first-team DI All-American, as well as a winner of the Athletic Excellence Award her senior year.

She also competed on the U.S. National Rowing Team, making the squad for the first time as a college sophomore, and won two Under-23 golds and a Senior World Championships silver and bronze while still an undergrad.

(YH) After college, Lofgren decided to pursue rowing full-time and moved to Princeton, New Jersey to join the USRowing Training Center.

[4] After her sophomore year in college, Lofgren earned a seat on both the Under-23 and the Senior National Teams, winning and setting the World Record in the BW8+ and taking bronze in the W4- with future Olympic teammate Erin Cafaro.

[7] She then joined Whipple, Davies, Lind, Elle Logan, Musnicki, Ritzel, Francia, and Erin Cafaro to win gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

[6] Her parents both fell just short of that dream – including her mother being the last woman cut from selection camp for the Olympic quadruple sculls crew that went on to win gold – but decided to start a family instead.

[13] From 2012 to 2015, she served on the Board of Directors of USRowing, and as the peer-elected rowing representative to the United States Olympic Committee's Athlete Advisory Council.