With 3 Big Ten championships under her belt Michigan State University graduate Emily Regan is going for the biggest prize -- an Olympic gold medal.
"I'm so excited. I'm so proud for her. She's worked so hard being there," said Matt Weise, MSU's rowing coach.
In Rio, team USA beat Netherlands with 8 seconds to go.
"That's unheard of at the Olympics," Weise said. "That was really a major victory. It will be interesting to see what they do in the final."
One rowing boat is about 62 feet and the USA's team beat the other countries with 8 seconds to spare. Which Weise says is about 3 of those boats back-to-back.
He said, "my hope for them is that they can go as fast as they possibly can and it looks like they had a great time this morning."
As the first MSU rower to go to the Olympics, she has support from not only her former coach but the entire rowing community.
"We're just so excited to watch her race in fact we're all getting together Saturday morning to watch her in them finals," said Cheryl Engfehr with Lansing's Rowing Club.
Since the Olympics has started the rowing club has had a lore more people show interest. Engfehr says since the sport is low impact it's great for any age.
"Usually we get about 18 per class but this year, we had a wait list," Engfehr said. "We've had people call in after the class, seeing if we can start up another one."
Weise is hoping that interest will roll over to September when the team has open sign ups.
"There's usually a spike around the Olympic times, hopefully we'll get another bump," Weise said.
He tells me there's nothing like having a gold Olympian as an alum to help recruit.
"Hopefully she'll bring the gold home. One more right, she's already got world titles, 3 titles," said Weise. "Gold medal is the one remaining for her."
