Where do you see yourself in 10 years? It’s a question many college-aged students struggle with, but when Nyack native Charlotte Buck first arrived on Columbia University’s campus as a wide-eyed freshman in the fall of 2014, she was ready for new experiences, so much so that she attempted to join the Lions’ rowing team as a walk-on.
She had heard good things from her older sister, who encouraged her to join the team, and it provided an immediate opportunity to make new friends and meet people. Buck ended up getting much more in return.
Nearly 10 years since that life-altering decision, she’s competed at a national and global level. Her rowing idols, when she was a newcomer to the sport, have become valued friends and teammates. She is now putting the finishing touches on her preparations ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris later this month.
It will be her second time rowing for Team USA, after previously competing in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“I was a bio major and I stayed a bio major, did all of my pre-med requirements, and I thought that I was going to go to medical school and that’s what I would get out of college,” Buck said. “By the time I graduated (in 2018), I was like, ‘Well, it’s something you can always put on hold and you can’t really put athletics on hold, so I thought I might as well try to pursue this one while I’m young enough to make it work.”
After a successful career at Columbia, Buck made her first Olympic team, qualifying for the Tokyo Games in 2020, which were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also represented the stars and stripes at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, and helped the Americans capture the silver medal in last year’s world championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
They hope to land on the podium again in Paris. In Tokyo, they just missed and finished in fourth in the women’s eight category.
Not only is she looking forward to another opportunity to compete for Team USA, but also the full Olympics experience.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were strict guidelines enforced at the previous Olympics. Aside from quarantines and no outside spectators, Olympians were required to leave the premises once their event and competition was over.
She’s focused on her race, but once that’s over, she plans on being able to take in the full experience and watch other events at the Summer Games.
According to Buck, the moment hasn’t fully sunk in yet, and she and her teammates have been rowing a marathon’s worth of mileage each day, with three workouts six times a week.
“It never feels real until you get there and you do all the things,” said Buck, who is currently training with Team USA in Italy. “But, I think the day I thought the most about it was actually the last time I saw my parents before I left. My mom actually cried and I was like, ‘Mom, I’ve already done this,’ but she said it’s not the same because they’re going to be there and I’m going to have so many friends come. It’s an incredibly special honor and you really can’t take it for granted. I’m just so excited that I get this opportunity to go again and that we are so hopeful we end up on the podium.”
From Rockland Lake to the biggest stage
Buck’s first introduction to the sport came in the summer of 2014, shortly before she started college. She rowed with the Rockland Rowing Association and with her mother on Rockland Lake.
Whether it was soccer, tennis, basketball, Shakespeare plays, mock trial or playing in the school orchestra, Buck excelled in nearly any endeavor she immersed herself in growing up.
Rowing came with some early growing pains, but she quickly felt comfortable on the boat.
“They do all this testing of power output on rowing machines, and very quickly, she dropped below seven minutes on the ERG, which is a big marker,” her father, Roger Buck, said. “You’re a serious collegiate rower if you can be sub-seven, and it didn’t take her very many months to hit that mark and her teammates were shocked. It was kind of like, ‘Where did she come from? How did this happen?’ Most of the other rowers had been rowing for four or five years, and she’d been rowing for three months and she could already out-power them.”
Making one Olympic team is already an esteemed achievement, but to do it twice brings plenty of excitement and more surrealism to those closest to her.
“The first time she was just so happy to make the team, and then she was so happy to go to the Olympics,” her mother, Sharon Quayle, said. “Even though it was COVID, it was still an unbelievable achievement. Now, she definitely wanted to go to this year’s Olympics.
“They still had to go through the whole process of training and being selected. In a way, she was a lot more invested in this Olympics because she’s returning at a higher skill level and she just knows her teammates better, so it was a little more emotional in terms of who was going to make the team. We had a good feeling she was going to make the team, but the whole selection process is so opaque and up in the air until it’s a definite thing. I can’t remember the exact moment, but we were definitely so ecstatic.”
When she wasn’t training, she also gave some of her time to coach at the Rockland Rowing Association. While there have been more commitments in recent years, she still tries to drop in whenever possible and share words of encouragement and advice to those that reach out.
“I don’t know anybody else who could do what she does,” Rockland Rowing Association president Ivan Rudolph-Shabinsky said. “She’s special. She works super hard, an amazing athlete. She’s a fantastic representative (for Rockland) and she’s been so gracious with her time. …She coached for us for a number of years and the kids love her. You could say, ‘Charlotte’s going to be around,’ and every kid wants to be there. She’s a lovely young woman and she’s driven.”
Buck and the United States’ women’s rowing eight-person team is slated to compete at 4:50 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3. While family and friends are finalizing their travel plans to see her compete in-person in Paris, the Rockland Rowing Association and many others are ready for an early-morning watch party.
“One-time Olympian is one thing, but going back twice and this time being the stroke for the women’s eight, that’s an impressive accomplishment,” Rudolph-Shabinsky said. “We’re just awed. … The stroke is the person that everybody else is following. They’re sort of the lead that all of the other rowers are watching to follow her blade and follow her mark. When they gotta go, she’s the one who has to make it go right. She stroked the boat when they were at the World Cup and won the silver medal, so it’s really exciting.”
Taking on Paris
Buck describes herself as a casual athlete growing up, but now competes at a level reserved for the most dedicated athletes on the planet.
“I always joke that nobody would have voted me the most athletic in high school or most likely to become an Olympian,” Buck said. “It’s almost inconceivable to me to think how different I would be if I hadn’t decided to walk-on. Rowing has changed how I view myself and it has given me so much personal confidence and strength.
“I didn’t ever do it to become an Olympian, but I did fall in love with the camaraderie you have on the team. It’s like no other sport because you have to have everybody buy in. No one can be the superstar in rowing, you have to have all your teammates.”
Older, wiser, and more experienced, Buck is determined and prepared for this year’s Olympics. Although she’s locked in on training and upcoming competition, there are moments where she looks back and admits it doesn’t get old.
“The first time I met one of my teammates was eight years ago, when she won a gold medal and I thought, ‘Wow, she’s amazing’,” she said. “Now, I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ going to my second Olympics and racing with her again and that just isn’t what you ever expect for yourself. You don’t think you’re going to get there necessarily, and it’s so special to come full circle and hopefully be that person to someone else.”
Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Nyack NY rower Charlotte Buck ready for second Olympics with Team USA
