Whittier College psychology major Laura Goodkind '21, along with her partner Russell Gernaat, are competing in the second set of the Paralympic trials for rowing, now underway in West Windsor, New Jersey. They aim to lock in their spots for the Tokyo Games this summer.
As with most large events in 2020, the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games were postponed, to the great disappointment of thousands of athletes. Now upon promising statistics regarding the vaccine, the Olympic Games Tokyo are rescheduled for July 23-August 9, 2021 and the Paralympic Games are scheduled to take place August 24-September 5, 2021.
At the 2019 World Rowing Championships, Goodkind’s team finished eighth in the PR2 mixed double sculls and show no signs of slowing down. The pair easily won their time-trial on Monday, crossing the finish line with a time of 9:08.41, 2.48 minutes before the second-place team crossed the line.
"It was good," said Gernaat, Goodkin’s partner, in a recent interview for US Rowing. "Obviously, the time trial is a great time to really shake off the dust, so to speak. COVID's been very impactful to everybody…We've worked very hard to get back to good, reasonable numbers. It's been a long time working together out at Chula Vista, and obviously, the goal here is to take it to Tokyo and see if we can get into the hunt for a medal."
Goodkind and Gernaat will be out on the water again on Wednesday morning. Semifinals and finals will be streamed live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
Founded in 1894 and headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee serves as both the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States. The USOPC is focused on protecting, supporting and empowering America's athletes, and is responsible for fielding U.S. teams for the Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American and Parapan American Games.
