Molly Bruggeman (Notre Dame ’14) and the United States Olympic Women’s Rowing Team finished first in the repechage of the W8+ the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris early Thursday morning and will advance to the gold medal race on Saturday, August 3, at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on the east side of Paris.
The United States W8+ will join heat winners Romania and Great Britain in the finals, along with Canada, Australia and Italy.
➡️ On to finals
The U.S. women’s eight wins their repechage with a time of 06:03.93 to advance to Saturday’s A Final. This marks highest U.S. participation in A Finals since Sydney 2000. #Paris2024 #RowToParis #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/h6No2Gh1x3
— USRowing (@usrowing) August 1, 2024
The U.S. boat, with Bruggeman sitting in the bow seat (which is the first rower to cross the finish line), finished in 6:03.93, ahead of Canada (6:04.81) and Australia (6:06.09).
The time is close to 16 seconds faster than the U.S. W8+ posted in its heat, which Romania won in 6:12.31.
The gold medal final will be at 4:50 a.m. ET on Saturday, August 3.
Bruggeman’s spot on the team marks the fourth-consecutive Olympiad that a Notre Dame rower will be involved with the national team. Amanda Polk (‘08) was an alternate for the U.S. team in 2012, then won a gold medal with the women’s eight in Rio during the 2016 games. Bruggeman was an alternate for the 2020 games in Tokyo and has now earned a spot on one of the two boats that will compete for a medal in Paris.
While in Paris, Bruggeman was asked about her Notre Dame experience.
“I went to Notre Dame,” Bruggeman said.
“It was an awesome choice for me. I went there for both academics and athletics. My dad went to Notre Dame, as well. I was the first kid in my family to be on a college scholarship, and it’s pretty incredible, being one of four kids, to alleviate some of that stress for my parents also. So that experience was amazing.
There’s nothing quite like being part of Fighting Irish. It was a dream school from a young age for me, so to have a full scholarship to my dream school was obviously one of the best things that could ever happen to me.”
A three-time All-American at Notre Dame from 2011-14, Bruggeman and Polk are the only three-time All-Americans in program history. Bruggeman led the Irish to a BIG EAST Championship in 2013 and a second-place conference finish in the team’s inaugural season in the ACC (2014). She also helped the Irish advance to the NCAA Championship regatta in 2012, 2013 and 2014, finishing as high as ninth in ‘14.
Bruggeman has been a part of nine U.S. national teams and has competed internationally in sculls, fours, pairs and eights along the way. She won gold in the four at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II and also claimed gold in the four at the 2017 World Rowing Championships. She also won the pair in the 2015 Pan American Games.
From Dayton, Ohio, Bruggeman graduated in 2015 from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in anthropology and pre-health. She has also served as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Rowing Team when she is not training for the national team in Princeton, New Jersey.