Saratoga rowers aim for Olympic gold with Team USA

We're a month away from the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. If you're looking for a local tie to root for, look no further than the US women's rowing team.

SARATOGA, NY (NEWS10) -- We're a month away from the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. If you're looking for a local tie to root for, look no further than the US women's rowing team.

Both Kristi Wagner and Lauren O'Connor are part of the ARION rowing team, training out of the Saratoga Regatta. They've also both qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics with Team USA.

Wagner, who will compete in the double sculls, will be heading to her second Olympics, "The rowing aspect of it really isn't that different," said Wagner. "We go to World Cups and World Championships and other races and it's all pretty similar."

Wagner first went to the Olympics for the 2020 games in Tokyo, which really took place in 2021 under COVID protocols. That experience was a lot different than what they can expect in Paris. "We had to leave within 24 hours of finishing competing," said Wagner. "We didn't experience any of, like, going to other events or going to the closing ceremonies or any of those things. So I'm definitely looking forward to hopefully having really, really great racing and then getting to celebrate it."

O'Connor will be competing in the quad sculls in her first Olympics. "It still feels a little, like, not real that we're going to be going and doing it," said O'Connor. "It was really cool and everyone just kind of tells me to just take it all in. Just go and experience all the different things."

Not only will O'Connor and Wagner be in Paris, so will their coach. Eric Catalano started ARION to work with the sport's best. Now he's doing that on the biggest stage, assisting team USA. "When I first started, the goal was to be able to help the athletes make it to this level," said Catalano. "When I got the opportunity to also come and help prepare them at this level, that was definitely unexpected but super fun."

The racing is largely business as usual. The change comes in preparing for the noise around it. "We want to take everything in, but we want to make sure that we're not distracted by these things as well," said Catalano. "So a little more intentionality on our mindsets going in."

Both athletes credit Saratoga Rowing for their growth, but the support from the Saratoga community at large has also been crucial. "We're not even professional athletes, really," said Wagner. "We're just elite athletes, and so we need a lot of support and we need a lot of help and we've gotten all of that from Saratoga. It just feels really cool to be able to represent the area."

Wagner and O'Connor are going for gold, but they're most focused on what they can control. "Aim for the top and for that gold medal," said O'Connor. "But, you know, it also kind of is the goal is to race as best as you can and you can't control what other people are going to do."

"It's about the medal. and right now we are 100% in for it," said Wagner. "We want to go as fast as we can possibly go. Of course, there are factors that we can't control there, which is the speed of everybody else. But I'd say an ideal scenario is that our best is better than everyone else's best."