On the Saturday of Charles Weekend, the Regatta dedicated two new trophies for women's events, in honor of two US Olympians and long-time collegiate women's coaches: Liz O'Leary and Yaz Farooq.
The Liz O'Leary Trophy will be awarded each year to the winner of the Women's Championship Collegiate Double and the Yaz Farooq Trophy to the winner of the Women's Collegiate Eight.
Dedicating these two additional trophies for these women's events forms part of the Regatta's commitment to ensuring that there are trophies for both the women's and men's champions in each race. The Charles has been adding trophies each year so that the club, masters, para, and youth races as well as the Champ events will feature hardware. They plan to add a number of trophies each year until every event winner has a trophy to hoist along with their HOCR medals.
O'Leary, who recently retired after 37 years at the helm of Radcliffe Crew, is herself an institution on the Charles River, thanks both to her long tenure at Harvard and the mentorship she provided to countless coaches and Radcliffe athletes, fourteen of whom, like O'Leary herself, went on to make the US National Team.
An Olympian in both the 1976 and 1980, O'Leary won two silvers at the World Championships in the women's double, so having her name on the trophy for the doubles from collegiate programs means a great deal to her--and fittingly enough, a Radcliffe crew became the first winners of the new trophy later in the day.
"It's an honor," said O'Leary, "and particularly because my heart is as a sculler, so for me to have the trophy be for a sculling boat is pretty cool. The double is a boat that I care deeply about."
"It's also humbling, she added, "but it's great and I hope it gives some energy to the trophy and to the event. Sculling, I think, is the heart and soul of the sport."
O'Leary was able to accept the dedication with her long-time National Team double partner, Lisa Stone.
"Lisa and I raced together for a long time. When I went out to Long Beach in the early 70s, Lisa was one of the stronger and really accomplished scullers, and I was this rookie from New England, so they looked at me like, who are you? But Lisa and I hit it off, both in terms of making a boat go pretty well and in terms of being really close friends. It was a good match, and that was the start of my sculling career. I'm grateful to her for the wisdom that she brought to the boat."
Looking back over her 37 years of coaching Radcliffe on this river, O'Leary admitted the Charles has gotten "busier and busier," but she also called it a timeless place.
"Weld Boathouse, Harvard University, and all the other boat houses are on the river have been here for a long time. The Head of the Charles is this extraordinary event now. It's grown and it's become international, and it's an amazing event. But the river is still the river, and that won't ever change. That's the wonderful, timeless, ageless piece of it. I was lucky to have been here and enjoyed it and coached remarkable women at Radcliffe."
Farooq, the two time Olympic coxswain and 1995 World Champion, was equally thrilled to have a trophy for an eights race named for her, particularly at the Charles--a regatta for which she ran coxswain clinics for many years, teaching hundreds of fellow coxswains how to steer the course.
"The Charles is my favorite race," Farooq said. "I love this race. It's a coxswain's race. I don't know how many times I've driven down the course, and I did the clinic here for 20 years."
"When they told me I really was speechless, which is rare for me," she laughed, "but I just couldn't believe it, honestly, and Fred Schoch told me, which was extra touching because he was my first national team coach in 1989."
"A trophy is timeless, and I was very emotional. To have your name on a trophy at the most iconic head race in the world, as a coxswain, is just the greatest honor I could ever imagine."
"Along with your name going on a trophy is the job of presenting it every year, which I will joyfully do. I'm beyond humbled and grateful."
The clinic she taught about the Charles with its many bridges and turns for so many years has given Farooq a special connection to the regatta.
"The greatest moments for me every year at the Head of the Charles are the coxswains who stop me on the path and say, 'Thank you so much for the clinic. I just crushed the Week's Bridge turn' or 'I was so nervous about the race but then I attended your clinic and I knew exactly what I needed to do.' To me, it's like they're all my kids, and they're of every age. Even scullers will come up and thank me for doing that clinic."
"When Fred brought me in for the clinic, at the beginning, it was because they were trying to make sure the regatta was more safe. So to have taught so many people how to crush the course, that's the greatest joy. I hope that people will watch that video for years to come, and I hope to run in to people on the pathway into my 80s."
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