Olympic Medalist Speaks to Austin Prep students

To say Olympic rowing runs in Dr. Gevvie Stone’s family is an understatement

Her mother competed in the 1976 Olympics. Her father qualified for the 1980 Olympics but missed competing due to the United States boycott. Her great-great uncle won a gold medal in rowing at the 1924 Olympics.

Dr. Stone has kept the family tradition alive, winning the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in single sculls. She spoke to Middle School students at Austin Preparatory School in Reading on Oct. 17 about training for the Olympics while attending medical school, and her plans for the future.

“In order to succeed at the international level, it takes dedication and sacrifice all year round,” Dr. Stone said.

A Newton native, she still rows every morning on the Charles River in Boston. She graduated from Princeton University in 2007 and received her medical degree from Tufts University in 2014. She balanced going to medical school with her training and said it was not always easy. She believed in herself and remained determined to achieve her dreams.

“You really have to put yourself into it, in order to get what you want out of it,” Dr. Stone told the students. “That’s just a matter of heart when it all comes down to it.”

One of her favorite books is The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, which Austin Prep’s middle-schoolers read over the summer. It is about the nine working-class American boys who beat the elite rowing teams from around the world to win the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

“Rowing has changed a lot since 1936,” Dr. Stone said. “But the mental mindset that you need when you go into a race is the same.”

She is pursuing a fellowship in sports medicine and hopes to stay as close to rowing as possible.

“You can’t ask for a better place for an office than the Charles River at sunrise,” Dr. Stone said.