FOLSOM, Calif. — A Folsom-born rowing athlete is heading to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Michelle Sechser, 37, will compete in the lightweight women’s double sculls in July during the Olympics, according to U.S. Rowing, a nonprofit membership organization recognized by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee as a national governing body for rowing in America.
In the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, Sechser and her partner, Mary Reckford, finished fifth in women's’ lightweight double sculls.
Sechser began rowing at 14 for Capital Crew in Sacramento County after seeing how much her older sister was enjoying crew after her first season, according to U.S. Rowing. She began pursuing the U.S. National Team rowing after attending graduate school at the University of Tulsa.
Michelle Sechser’s mother, Mary, said the Olympic experience is somewhat dreamlike.
“It’s surreal, right? I have to stop for a moment and go, ‘Oh, that’s my daughter,’” Mary Sechser told ABC10 on Tuesday. “I still see her as this young girl, and now she’s going to be doing this.”
Mary Sechser said her daughter, Michelle, got into rowing after her older sister, Jacqueline, participated in crew first.
“Her older sister came home one day her freshman year of high school and said ‘I’m going to join crew,’” Mary Sechser said. “I thought she meant like with church, how you pick up things on the side of the road.”
Rowing, however, was explained to her, and Michelle Sechser constantly surveilled her older sister’s races. When Sechser started high school, she began rowing, too, and what followed was an over 20-year athletic career; she is now 37.
“You don’t see a lot of athletes at that age, especially in rowing,” Mary Sechser said.
The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris run from Friday, July 26, to Sunday, Aug. 11.
Sechser’s event, the women's’ lightweight double sculls, will run 9 a.m.-1:10 p.m. Saturday, July 27.
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