Four Cardinal Head to Paris

STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford women’s rowing will have four representatives at the 2024 Olympic Games held this summer in Paris. 

The four Cardinal competing at the Olympic games are the most in program history, with records dating back to the 1976 games. 

Alumnae Azja Czajkowski ‘23 and Emily Delleman ‘20 will compete for team USA, racing in the Women’s Pair (2-) and Women's Quadruple Sculls (4x), respectively. Each will meet a fellow Stanford-affiliated rower as Esther Briz Zamorano will compete in the Women’s Pair (2-) for Spain while current Cardinal Célia Dupré will race in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls (4x) for Switzerland. 

Czajkowski left an indelible mark on the Stanford women’s rowing team during her time on The Farm, leading the program to its first national championship since 2009 in the varsity eight boat while earning U.S. Rowing Co-Athlete of the Year in 2022, Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Athlete of the Year in 2023 as well as Pac-12 Rower of the Year honors during the same campaigns. Her path to the Olympics started at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, where she was named a spare for the US National Team. With a sixth-place finish at the World Championships, the US qualified the women’s pair for the 2024 Olympic Games. However, in rowing, countries only qualify the boat class - the athletes who raced at the 2023 World Championships were not necessarily guaranteed spots in those boats the following year. Czajkowski spent the rest of 2023 and early 2024 training with the Princeton Training Center in Princeton, N.J. and Sarasota, Fla., readying to compete at the 2023 Fall Speed Order and 2024 Winter Speed Order to secure a spot at team USA’s Olympic Selection camp in March of 2024.  Azja recorded a second-place finish in the B-Final of the Fall Speed Order with fellow former Cardinal Kaitlyn Kynast, and at the Winter Speed Order, Czajkowski earned a spot in the A-final of the Women’s Pair, securing her invitation to the United States’ Olympic Selection Camp. At selection camp, Czajkowski impressed the national team and was selected to compete in the Women’s Pair at the 2024 USA Olympic Trials. She officially punched her ticket to the Olympic Games at the trials, winning her race by seven seconds. She and partner Jessica Thoennes most recently competed at the World Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland, finishing sixth overall. 

Emily Delleman graduated in 2020 as a two-time All-American selection (2019- Second Team, 2020- Stanford nominee) and similar to Czajkowski had a unique path to earn her ticket to Paris. She first made the U.S. senior national team in 2022 as a selection to the United States’ Women’s Quadruple Sculls boat that competed at the 2022 World Championships in Raçice, Czech Republic, earning a ninth-place overall finish. She did not qualify to race at the 2023 World Championships and the United States did not qualify its Women’s Quadruple Sculls (4x) boat at the event, the lone team USA women’s boat to not qualify for the 2024 Olympics at this event. This left the future of the boat and its possible trip to the games up to the Final Qualification Regatta, held in May of 2024 in Lucerne, Switzerland. Delleman competed at both the 2023 Fall Speed Order and the 2024 Winter Speed Order in the Women’s Single Sculls (W1x), placing fifth in the fall and 10th in the winter to earn an invitation to Team USA Selection Camp. At the selection camp, Delleman was nominated to race in the top Women’s Quadruple Sculls at the Olympic Trials, and her boat took first at the trials to secure its spot at the Final Qualification Regatta. In May, Delleman and teammates Teal Cohen, Grace Joye and Lauren O’Connor won the final qualification regatta, securing their boats spot at the 2024 games. 

Fellow two-time all-American Esther Briz Zamorano has competed as a part of team Spain since 2016, racing for the team at three World Rowing Junior Championships from 2016-2018 and the World Rowing Under-23 Championships in 2019 and 2021. She has raced as a part of the Women’s Pair since the 2023 World Rowing Cup I, where she earned a first-place finish with partner AIna Cid. The pair earned third-place finishes at the 2023 European Rowing Championships and World Rowing Cup II and a fifth-place finish at the World Rowing Cup III. The duo secured their ticket to Paris at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, needing a top-11 finish and earning an eighth-place result. 

Dupre, the 2023 Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year, stepped away from the program for the 2024 season to focus exclusively on her dreams to compete at this year’s Olympics. Switzerland earned its spot at the 2024 Olympics in the Quadruple Sculls with a fourth-place finish at the 2023 World Championships, a boat Dupre raced in, but their finish did not guarantee the team racing in it a seat in the country’s Olympic boat. She continued training with the Switzerland national team throughout 2023 and 2024, winning the Swiss Indoor Championships with a Swiss-record time of 6:44.4. After racing with the boat in four regattas throughout 2024, earning top-five finishes at the World Cup I, European Rowing Championships, and World Cup II alongside a second-place effort at the World Cup III, Dupre was named to the Swiss Olympic Women’s Quadruple Sculls boat in June. 

 

Rowing competition in Paris runs from July 27 through August 3rd.  Representatives from the Stanford women’s rowing program first hit the water in the Quadruple Sculls Heats on July 27 with heats for the Women’s Pair scheduled for July 28. The medal races for the Women’s Quadruple Sculls and Women’s Pair are set for July 31 and August 2, respectively. 

2024 Olympic Rowing Schedule (Stanford women’s rowing representation only)
July 27, 2024, 3:50 a.m. PT: Women’s Quadruple Sculls Heats

July 28, 2024, 1:30 a.m. PT: Women’s Pair Heats

July 29, 2024, 1:30 a.m. PT: Women’s Pair Repechages

July 29, 2024, 2:30 a.m. PT: Women’s Quadruple Sculls Repechages

July 31, 2024, 1:54 a.m./2:04 a.m. PT: Women’s Pair Semifinal A/B 1 and 2

July 31, 2024, 3:14 a.m. PT: Women’s Quadruple Sculls Final B

July 31, 2024, 3:38 a.m. PT: Women’s Quadruple Sculls Final A 

August 2, 2024, 1:54 a.m. PT: Women’s Pair Final B

August 2, 2024: 2:42 a.m. PT: Women’s Pair Final A

 

Stanford Women’s Rowing Olympic History

2024 Olympic Games - Paris, France

2020* Olympic Games - Tokyo, Japan

*Games held in 2021 due to COVID-19 global pandemic

2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

*Coco was Nigeria's first rower to represent the country at the Olympic Games

2012 Olympic Games - London, United Kingdom

2008 Olympic Games - Beijing, China

2004 Olympic Games - Athens, Greece

1992 Olympic Games - Barcelona, Spain

1988 Olympic Games - Seoul, South Korea

1984 Olympic Games - Los Angeles, California

1980 Olympic Games - Moscow, Russia

1976 Olympic Games - Montreal, Canada