Cal Alum Kara Kohler Headed to Paris After Securing Third Olympic Rowing Berth

`It's a relief. There was a lot of stress leading up to that race because you've got to be on for that one race. It's a dream come true to go to the Olympics again.' - 3-time Olympian Kara Kohler

East Bay native and Cal alum Kara Kohler is headed to the Olympics for the third time.

The 33-year-old locked up a spot at the Paris Games by winning the women’s single sculls event at the U.S. rowing trials at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida on Sunday.

"It's a relief," Kohler told USRowing. "There was a lot of stress leading up to that race because you've got to be on for that one race. It's a dream come true to go to the Olympics again. I'm pumped.”

Kohler, who grew up in the Contra Costa County community of Clayton, was a four-time All-American at Cal through 2013.

She previously competed at the 2012 London Olympics, where she won a bronze medal in the women’s quadruple sculls, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021 after the pandemic), securing third place in the B final of the single sculls.

Kohler is expecting more from herself at Paris.

“Yes, I would say it’s a dream,” Kohler told the Sarasota Herald Tribune. “(At Tokyo) it wasn’t the performance I was capable of. So this time I get to go to Paris with all these lessons to carry with me. It’s a big show, but I want to go there and I want to perform.”

Representing the Princeton-based USRowing Training Center, Kohler was undefeated during the week-long trials, including a victory in the Sunday finals in 8 minutes, 4.01 seconds, winning by more than six seconds over runner-up Margaret Fellows of Cambridge, Mass.

Kohler took the lead early and was in front by more than four seconds at the halfway point of the 2,000-meter competition. 

Kohler was a swimmer through high school before joining the Cal women’s crew team as a walk-on. She earned Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year honors in 2010 and led the Bears to the NCAA varsity eight crown as a senior in 2013.

She has made steady progress through her career on the national team. A year after the Tokyo Games, she placed 13th in the single sculls at the 2022 World Rowing Championships.

She was fourth in the same event at the 2023 Worlds while also placing third at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II Regatta.

The women’s single sculls competition at Paris begins on Saturday, July 27, the day after the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.