Conversation with Olympians Reckford ’15, Quiñones ’19 and Ramsey ’22

Every four years, the world is captivated by the Olympics. "Have you been watching the Olympics?" is a question commonly asked during that 17-day window. There's just something about watching the fastest and strongest athletes compete that draws our attention.

With the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games due to the devastation of the pandemic came a lot of questions. Where do I train? How do I keep the momentum going? Will this even happen next year?

Four former and one current Dartmouth student-athlete had to navigate the many what-ifs on the journey to Tokyo. The rise in cases and the appearance of a new variant made many question if the Olympics were going to be postponed yet again, but stricter protocol allowed the games to go forward.

Molly Reckford '15 (United States, women's rowing), Isalys Quniñones '19 (Puerto Rico, women's basketball, Ariana Ramsey '22 (United States, women's rugby, Madison Hughes '15 (United States, men's rugby), and Dong Seon Kim '12 (South Korea, equestrian) and competed in Japan with the backing of former coaches and teammates in Hanover. Reckford, Quinoñes and Ramsey talked to DartmouthSports.com about their experiences after returning home.

Molly Reckford
Reckford almost quit rowing as a sophomore in high school to focus on pole-vaulting. When she stuck with it and decided to continue rowing in college, she walked on to the team at Dartmouth when she wasn't recruited. She is just the sixth Olympian that the team has produced and the first in 25 years, a dream she didn't know was possible to achieve until early last year.

"The moment I realized it was more than an off-chance was during the lead up to Trials in late February of 2020. When Michelle [Sescher] and I originally partnered, we had a good seed and that's the moment where I thought that this could actually happen. It had always been a huge goal, but I thought it was an off chance. When we were partnered, I realized that we had more than a small chance of doing this."

The pair continued to train together even when everything started to shut down due to COVID and they were able to get back to racing during the early parts of 2021. They won their race in February at Trials I in Sarasota, Florida, placed second in April at Trials II in West Windsor, New Jersey, and won all three races in May at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, officially earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team.

When racing began in Tokyo, Reckford and Sescher stood out. They won their first of two repechages before breaking both the Olympic and world records in the semifinal, only to have Italy edge their boat by a mere 0.18 seconds. The final was extremely close and Reckford and Sescher finished in fifth place, just 0.51 seconds from medaling. "You always want to be on the podium and being half a second off the podium and a second out of gold is not an easy result," Reckford said. "You know you should be proud, but also know you wanted more. But it's fuel for the fire and I know we can get faster. It's an exciting thing, knowing that we have some improvements to make."

Isalys Quiñones
When COVID first hit, Quiñones was home in San Diego and had to train with water jugs. After her parents bought her weights, she joined Beach Body to help her stay in shape. "I loved it. I've never seen my body transform from working out, but this was very body-focused and I really saw some great transformations." Besides joining online classes, Quiñones also worked out on the small court in her backyard. "It's the size of the free throw line. I worked on stuff close to the basket and ball handling skills. I had to be creative."

When the Olympics began, Puerto Rico played a total of three games against China, Belgium and Australia, and even though it dropped all three, Quinoñes was proud to be part of the first team from her country to ever make the Olympics. "It was an honor to be part of the whole process and to do something no one has ever done before. No one thought we could do it. Some of us didn't even see this coming. Each step we took was historical, and the overall outcome was historical. I'm very proud to have been part of that."

Quinoñes said that the rigors of attending and playing at an Ivy League school helped prepare her for life after college. "The resiliency I learned from getting through workouts while going to school and having a social life on top of that taught me so much. I couldn't have learned that anywhere else. That resiliency translated to my training and trying to be the best that I could be for Puerto Rico."

Next steps? Quinoñes said she took a brief break after returning from Tokyo, but that she's getting back on the court very soon. "I signed a contract to play professionally in France for 8-10 months. I didn't really have plans to play overseas and I thought I was just going to go back into the work force, but when my agent came to me with this offer, I felt like I couldn't turn it down. I'm going out on a whim and this wasn't part of the plan, but I'm going to enjoy the process and enjoy my time while I am there."

Ariana Ramsey
Ramsey's first foray in the sports world was as a competitive cheerleader, making it as far as the Cheerleading World Championships before moving on to track, basketball, field hockey and wrestling. She didn't start playing rugby until she was a sophomore in high school, by which point she left all the other sports behind to focus on that.

She knew that making the Olympics was more than just a dream when she was selected to the Junior Olympic Trial Team. "We were competing to go to the Junior Olympics and all we had to do was beat Canada, but we lost. Since I was the only one that scored, I knew I had potential."

Overjoyed to find out that she had, in fact, qualified, Ramsey and the other 11 players on the USA Women's Rugby Team went to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, where practices were anything but easy. "We trained every day except for Wednesdays and the weekend. We would usually go in at 8:30 a.m. and leave around 4:00 p.m., and our days consisted of gym, skill, speed, and practice sessions."

The Eagles got to Japan over two weeks before the Games began to adjust to the time difference. When they did start play on July 26, they had six games, defeating China twice (28-14, 33-14) and Japan (17-7), and falling to Australia twice (14-12, 17-7) and Great Britain (21-12). Ramsey scored her first Olympic try in the win over Japan but suffered a torn ACL in the second game against China. The injury will keep her off the field for six months, but she will be back playing with the team that has given her so much soon. "Dartmouth women's rugby has prepped me to be a great player and teammate. Coach Dowty helped me along the way with my decisions and provided me with confidence."

*Dong Seon Kim and Madison Hughes were not available for comment.

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