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Students watched the television closely as Stephan raced to victory on the morning of Wednesday, 28 July on Sea Forest Waterway.<\/p>\n
Stephan, Jess Morrison, Annabelle McIntyre and Rosie Popa conquered silver medallists the Netherlands and bronze medallists Ireland in an Olympic best time of 6:15:37, putting Australian women\u2019s rowing in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s motivational, and it shows us what we can achieve,\u201d Ella said.<\/p>\n
Stephan said juggling school and sport can be a \u201cfast-paced\u201d challenge, but encourages young people to set themselves goals if they have big dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year I rowed, my goal was to win Head of the Lake in the open thirds, and we didn\u2019t do that, but the next year, I wanted to make the firsts and win Head of the Lake, and we did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the first time I\u2019d gone after something that I wanted, not doing it for anyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was up to me to attack that goal, and for the young girls rowing now, it\u2019s up to them if they want to do this too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The newest boat in Grammar\u2019s girls racing fleet, the \u2018Lucy Stephan,\u2019 was christened outside the Boatshed restaurant later in the day by Stephan, before a celebratory dinner.<\/p>\n
Stephan continues to train, with sights on the Paris Olympics. She coaches at Scotch College, for Rowhaus, and works for athletic apparel brand 776BC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BALLARAT Grammar\u2019s young rowing squad was abuzz with excitement recently as they welcomed a golden Old Grammarian back to their boatshed. Tokyo Olympic gold medallist in the women\u2019s four, Lucy Stephan, dropped into the Vikings Rowing Club with her medal to meet the junior athletes, and check out her former home shed, having graduated from […]<\/p>\n