Joan Louise LIND

The greatest female sculler America has yet produced, Joan Lind began rowing in 1971, her freshman year at Long Beach State. She started out in doubles and quads but moved into the singles in 1973. She competed at the next two World Championships, gradually improving, and at the 1976 Olympics she lost by only 65/100th’s of a second to East Germany’s Christine Scheiblich. She won two silver medals at the Lucerne and Amsterdam Regattas, and though she missed the 1980 Olympics, she won another silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in quad sculls. Joan Lind earned a master’s degree from St. Thomas College and later was a teacher and coach. In 2014 she was given the Ernestine Bayer Award for contributions to rowing. Her husband, John Van Blom, also rowed for the United States at the 1968-76 Olympics. Lind-Van Blom died after a long battle with brain cancer. She is a member of the Wilson, Long Beach State, Century Club, and National Rowing Halls of Fame.