Gevvie Stone ’07 balances medical career and Olympic dreams
Rower returns from Tokyo with broader perspective
Gevvie Stone ’07 had more ambitious plans than most when 2020 began: return to her medical residency program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston with a gold medal in single sculls rowing from the Tokyo Olympics — the perfect companion for the silver she picked up four years earlier in Rio.
COVID-19 changed those plans, but Stone thrives on managing chaos, as she discovered when she chose to pursue emergency medicine instead of orthopedics. She adapted just as well to the new pandemic world, extending her medical school leave and switching to double sculls when her hopes for singles were thwarted at the Olympic trials. That change also gave Stone and her rowing partner, Kristi Wagner, a new goal — become the first American medalists in their event. They ultimately finished fifth.
A member of Princeton’s 2006 NCAA rowing championship team, Stone became the 20th Princeton rower to win an Olympic medal in 2016. The three-time Olympian follows in the footsteps not only of her fellow Tigers, but also her parents, Lisa and Gregg Stone. Lisa rowed for Team USA in the 1976 Montreal games, and Gregg was bound for Moscow in 1980 (which the U.S. boycotted).
What was your rowing experience like at Princeton?
We had a freshman team, coached by Wendy Levash Bordeau ’98, who was a great coach. I think it’s easier to aim high and try hard if you’re not afraid of failing … it becomes a very positive environment, and the improvement rate is very rapid when you’re around freshmen.
Then I was lucky to be coached by Lori Dauphiny. Lori helped me really push my limits. She saw potential in me and was always asking for more. I was already competitive, but it became an internal competition, competing against what my best can be. It’s helpful to have some friendly competition, but I think doing that in the atmosphere of everyone trying to compete against themselves really was an amazing environment in which to learn to excel.
We were high achievers in a very collaborative and fun environment. My junior year, we won the NCAA championship; four of us from that group of eight rowers ended up being Olympians. Andréanne Morin ’06 already was at the time, and she went again in 2008 and 2012.
When did you realize you wanted to compete in the Olympics?
I remember walking into the locker room only one or two weeks into being a freshman in 2003. Two of my classmates had just raced on the 2004 Athens racecourse with the World Rowing Junior Championships team — which is the test race for the Olympic course — and they were talking about their Olympic goals. I vividly remember thinking, “Oh, they want to be Olympians, too. These are very fast women. It’s going to be hard to make it to the Olympics.” It was the first time I ever really acknowledged to myself that going to the Olympics was a goal of mine. Because I was surrounded by Olympians growing up — a lot of my parents’ friends are Olympians, too — it wasn’t some far reaching goal. It just seemed normal.
Your father, Gregg, became your coach a few years back. How has that worked out?
My mom was my coach first. She became the head coach of my high school rowing team when I was in middle school, before I started rowing. When I got to high school, I had that introduction to the “parent as a coach” idea, because we had struggled a little bit through figuring out that boundary line.
When I took the leave of absence from medical school, I initially worked technically with another coach, and the results weren't as good as I’d hoped. My dad took over, and he’s done it ever since. Even though I get very mad at him at times, and disagree with him plenty, he has done an exceptional job. I think he has learned as much as I have through the process, and I appreciate that desire of his to continue to learn.
It’s been a very special bond to share this passion and to be able to do it together, and I’m really lucky because being a single sculler could mean a lot of time alone. My dad is a person I’m comfortable with and friends with, so on those occasions where it could be very solitary and lonely, we’d go out and take a walk and get ice cream or visit a historical site. I really appreciate that about him.
What led you to switch to emergency medicine from orthopedics?
My dean of students at Tufts — who knew me better than I knew myself, it turns out — recommended in my fourth year that I try emergency medicine. I did one rotation, and I loved it, but I wasn’t sure. I thought of it as a backup option, because it’s really hard to get into orthopedics.
When I was on the plane back from Rio, I realized that the more I rowed, the more I fell in love with it, and I wouldn’t be a happy person if I didn’t have rowing in my life in some way. I didn’t know that it would be a return to elite rowing at that point, though it was a possibility.
Orthopedics doesn’t have the flexibility during residency for time spent on external interests, like rowing. Also, it’s a very competitive environment, and most of my competitive energy had already been devoted to rowing. Emergency is much more of a team environment, and everyone has other interests and hobbies, so I knew I could find time for rowing.
How did COVID-19 affect your Olympic plans and the medical residency?
The biggest change was that it extended the rowing for a year. My teammates and I were headed to trials in 2020 when trials got called off in the beginning of March. My plan had been to do the race trials, hopefully race in the Olympics, and then return to residency mid-August 2020. Instead of taking a two-year leave of absence, I had to take a three-year leave and train for an extra year.
My squad was very fortunate to be able to continue rowing, given all the pandemic restrictions. Single sculling is an important part of our training, no matter what, and the single is very socially distanced by virtue of being a single with long oars and a long bow and stern, so you really can’t get within 12 feet of someone. The team did our weight lifting out of a teammate’s garage. At the end of the summer, when things were getting better, we had a local regatta for a bunch of boat clubs that are in the Boston area. It wasn’t optimal. Every now and then you’d think, “This is Olympic training?” But we were able to keep training and that was critical. Then we picked up in the fall and basically had déjà vu when we did the Olympic year over again. Fortunately, we got through trials and the Olympics actually happened.
Was it difficult to get the leave from your medical residency, especially since you had to add the extra year?
My program director was surprised at first — very surprised — because I’d ended Rio with a medal, so why would I keep rowing? As he had more time to think about it, he was more and more supportive.
As for the extra year, I had already forgotten a lot in two years, so the return would be a challenge no matter what. My colleagues were actually some of the people who really encouraged me to do the extra year.
Do you have any advice to aspiring Olympians?
I think in order to achieve your potential in something that is as challenging as becoming an Olympian, you have to love it. For me, the hard work was really worth it, but if you didn’t love what you were doing, it would be miserable. You’ve got to find the joy in that hard work.
What does forward thinking mean to you?
One of the problems that I’ve always felt as a rower was that it could be very selfish. I was always thinking about my bedtime, what I had to eat, what I could do to optimize my physiology. Transferring to medicine, I get to have a much broader, wider viewpoint. It’s exciting to be able to keep rowing as a part of my life along with family, friends, patients and the hospital community.
Photo courtesy of row2k
