42 athletes have qualified for the U.S. Olympic rowing team, and one is from right here in North Texas. NBC 5’s Laura Harris has Teal Cohen’s hometown hopeful story that started at Hockaday School in Dallas to the Paris Olympics this summer.
The U.S. Olympic rowing team headed to the Paris Olympics is the largest team they have sent in 12 years.
Team USA is taking 42 rowers to Paris. One of the team members is Dallas native and Hockaday alum Teal Cohen.
“I think to cross the line and win was super exciting and then it definitely took a few days to kind of like come down from that and re-center and refocus and now it kind of just feels like we're back to training," Cohen said.
After graduating from Hockaday in 2017, Cohen went on to row at the University of Washington where she became a decorated NCAA athlete. It was at that point she thought, the Olympics could be a possibility.
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“I think for years it’s been a dream to make an Olympic team. That was always in the back of my head. I think it’s probably going to hit me when we get there [to Paris.] It weirdly feels pretty normal right now,” Cohen said.
Cohen is part of the quadruple sculls race with four rowers in the boat, each with two blades.
When she left the all-girl, private school in Dallas, she left a standard behind. That’s according to the rowers coming behind her in the school’s program.
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"I've had some girls tell me, go make Teal proud, so I think having that legacy on our team is super cool, having a boat named after her is just a constant reminder of what she's done,” Lillian Sells, current rower at Hockaday said.
Sells is part of the first national championship rowing team at Hockaday and said much of that success is in the name of Cohen’s hard work. They even dedicated a boat in her honor.
It was a ceremony that Cohen had to attend virtually because she was training. Even though Hockaday’s current rowing coach didn’t coach Cohen, he said he understands the impact of her living legacy.
“They’re capable, even at this school in Dallas, to start a career that begins in ninth grade, continues on through college, goes past that and now leads to the Olympics,” Will Forteith, head rowing coach at Hockaday said.
In leadership fashion though, Cohen doesn’t take all the credit. She is instead, pouring it back into them.
“First of all, I am so proud of them! Seeing them race the past few years has been so exciting. I just hope like they can see in me that if you work hard you can get pretty far.”
Rowing competitions at the Paris Olympics will begin July 27- August 4, just outside of Paris at Seine-et-Marne.
