The boys in the boat: Meet Team USA’s men set to race the eight at Paris 2024
On 21 May 2024, Team USA’s men’s eight won gold at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne Switzerland to secure a spot at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The nine victorious men will not only be the same nine to race in Paris, but each athlete mostl likely race in the same seat, according to U.S. Rowing.
Exactly 100 years ago, at the Olympic Games Paris 1924, the United States’ men’s eight claimed gold in Paris for the second consecutive year, and then went on to post eight back-to-back Olympic titles, sweeping the top spot on the podium for 36 years straight.
Now, nine men have been selected to fight to bring the dominance back to the United States and land on the podium, after a narrow miss in Tokyo left them empty-handed with a fourth-place finish.
Clark Dean is the one and only athlete in the boat with an Olympic Games under his belt, so with seven rowers and the coxswain set to make their Olympic debut, the world will see if the U.S. can land back on top. These are the nine American athletes, ordered coxswain then stroke to bow, in the men’s eight.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Clark Dean of The United States celebrates after his crew finish in 3rd place to qualify the men's four for the Tokyo 2020 olympic games during the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
Rielly Milne (coxswain)
Taking on the role of coxswain for the men’s eight in Paris is Rielly Milne, a 2018 University of Washington (UW) graduate who won gold at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships the same year he graduated from UW. Most recently, the Washington native coxed the men’s eight to the silver medal at the 2024 World Rowing Cup III and the gold at the 2024 World Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, playing a key role in the quota that was obtained for the boat. During the three years between Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, the 28-year-old balanced playing equestrian polo on top of his elite-level training.
Pieter Quinton
Set with the major task of stroking the men’s eight on the Olympic racecourse is Harvard alum Pieter Quinton. Paris 2024 will mark the 26-year-old’s Olympic debut, but racing in the eight on a major international stage is nothing new for Quinton, as he competed in the eight at the last two World Rowing Championships. After graduating from Harvard in 2020, he rowed at the University of Washington as a graduate student, where he earned IRCA Second-Team All-America honors and was also named to the IRCA Scholar-Athlete team and IRA All-Academic team.
Evan Olson
Having raced in the men’s pair at the 2023 World Rowing Championships, Evan Olson is a dynamic athlete who has competed internationally in eights, fours and pairs. During his senior year at the University of Washington (2018-19), Olson raced in both the third varsity eight and the varsity four, stroking the four that beat Northeastern and Oregon State at the Redwood Shores Regatta. In 2023, he won the Ladies Challenge Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames in England.
Team USA's men's eight celebrates after finishing first at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta to qualify for Paris 2024 on 21 May, 2024.
Peter Chatain
24-year-old Peter Chatain is the youngest member of this crew, but he is far from lacking experience. After graduating from Stanford in 2023 as an IRCA All-America first-team member and 2021 Pac-12 Rowing Athlete of the Year, the Illinois native was selected to represent the U.S. in Paris. He has five national team appearances under his belt and raced in the eight at the 2023 World Championships. His father was also an All-American athlete who raced at U.S. Olympic trials, but his sport was sailing, not rowing. Beyond the boat, Chatain’s hobbies include meditation and studying artificial intelligence ethics.
Chris Carlson
Hailing from the same school as his coxswain, Chris Carlson is set to bring the heat in Paris as the five seat in the eight. The 27-year-old was in the same boat as Milne as the two played major roles in racing the U.S. eight to the gold medal at the 2018 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Carlson has since raced in the eight at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and has landed himself on the podium at major international regattas, including the 2022, 2023 and 2024 World Rowing Cups. Paris 2024 will be his first Olympic Games.
Clark Dean
2023 IRCA All-American First Team member, IRCA Scholar-Athlete and Academic All-Ivy League member Clark Dean is set to make his second Olympic appearance in Paris, but his first in the eight. At Tokyo 2020, Dean raced in the four that finished fifth and is the only member of that crew that will be racing in the eight later this year. The Florida native will be looking for his first major gold medal after landing on the top of the podium at the 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Junior Championships, both in the single sculls.
Christian Tabash
After discovering rowing at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, Christian Tabash is set to make his Olympic debut 18 years later in Paris. In 2016, Tabash was awarded with the All-Met first-team honor by the Washington Post, before going on to take the silver medal in the eight at the 2017 World Junior Championships and bronze in the four with coxswain at the 2021 World Rowing U23 Championships. He has an impressive resume beyond the boat, as he is fluent in French and Haitian Créole and can converse in Spanish and Arabic. He also enjoys reading about history and politics, plays the piano and enjoys watching soccer, so Paris will be an exciting scene for the Virginia native.
Nick Rusher
Born to parents who were both Olympic rowers, Nick Rusher will attempt to bring home some hardware from Paris after narrowly missing the podium to take fourth at the 2022 World Championships. Rusher lists his father, two-time Olympian Jack, as his personal hero, telling U.S. Rowing “he has always been a pillar of strength” who taught him to “never give up in the face of adversity.” Once he wraps up his athletic career, Rusher hopes to use his degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from Yale to transition to a career in cancer research.
Henry Hollingsworth
In the bow seat of the men’s eight set to race in Paris is Henry Hollingsworth, former captain of Brown University’s rowing team. He earned IRCA All-American second-team and All-Ivy second-time honors in his junior and senior year, respectively, and went on to race in two World Championships before being selected to represent the United States in Paris. While still in college, Hollingsworth made the quarterfinals at the 2019 Henley Royal Regatta and then in 2022, he won the coveted Head of the Charles gold in the championship eight. The six-foot-two athlete is also a guitarist.