BELGRADE, Serbia — Cornell heavyweight rowing alumni Michael Grady '19 and the United States men's four placed first in the first semifinal at the 2023 World Rowing Championships on Thursday at the Ada Ciganlija regatta course on Sava Lake, securing a spot for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Grady will make his second appearance at the Summer Olympics after rowing with the U.S. men's four at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
He will be the first Cornell rowing alumni to appear in multiple Olympics since Tracy Eisser '12 in 2016 and 2020 and the first male Cornell rower to row in multiple Olympic Games since Ken Jurkowski '03 in 2008 and 2012.
With Grady's appearance at next summer's Olympic Games, he will be the fourth male Cornell rowing alumnus to make multiple Olympic appearances, joining Jurkowski, Michael Staines '71 (1972 and 1976), and Walter 'Chip' Lubsen Jr. '77 (1976 and 1984).
"It's really exciting," Grady told USRowing. "We were all in Tokyo, so it's nice (to qualify the boat) to return. It was a good race overall, and I think the guys in the boat would say so as well. There's always stuff to work on. It's quite windy, so it was an interesting race from the start. I'm proud of all of us."
The American quartet went wire-to-wire with its victory, completing the 2000-meter race in 6:25.99, finishing ahead of the Dutch crew by 2.49 seconds (6:28.48). Also earning a spot for the Olympics was the French four with a time of 6:30.40, edging Italy by three-plus seconds.
The Netherlands, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia will appear in the final of the men's four alongside the U.S.. The race will be held on Saturday at 8:54 a.m. ET (2:54 p.m. CEST).
Other Cornellians in action at the championships on Thursday included lightweight rowing alumni Sorin Koszyk '20, who won in the latter C/D semifinal of the men's doubles sculls. With the victory, Koszyk and his crewmate, Ben Davison, advanced to the 'C' final for overall places 13-18, which will take place on Sunday at 4:32 a.m. ET (10:32 a.m. CEST). The tandem will row against Lithuania, Serbia, Poland, Sweden, and Czechia.
Fellow heavyweight rowing alumni Eliot Putnam '18 finished fifth in Thursday's second C/D semifinal of the men's single sculls. Putnam, who rowed for the entirety of the race in fifth place, finished with a time of 7:34.68. He will appear in the 'D' final for overall places 19-24 on Sunday at 3:40 a.m. ET (9:40 a.m. CEST) facing Canada's Trevor Jones, Uruguay's Bruno Cetraro Berriolo, Spain's Gonzalo Garcia Ferrero, and Sweden's Eskil Borgh.
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The lone Cornell connection in Friday's action at the 2023 World Rowing Championships will feature women's rowing alumna Solveig Imsdahl '13 racing for a medal with her teammate, Elaine Tierney, in the lightweight women's pair against Germany and Italy. The race is scheduled to begin at 9:21 a.m. ET (3:21 p.m. CEST). Imsdahl and Tierney finished third in the race for lane assignments on Tuesday.
