Olympic gold medalist visits San Miguel

By Alberto Gilman, agilman@tcnewspapers.com
Posted 1/22/25

United States Olympic rower Nick Mead was welcomed to San Miguel Academy in the City of Newburgh on Wednesday, January 15 where he spoke to students about his life and career, offered advice to …

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Olympic gold medalist visits San Miguel

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United States Olympic rower Nick Mead was welcomed to San Miguel Academy in the City of Newburgh on Wednesday, January 15 where he spoke to students about his life and career, offered advice to student rowers on how to prepare and practice, and observed students on their practice regiments. San Miguel students also had the opportunity to see Mead’s gold medal won in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Mead, a Pennsylvania native and Princeton University graduate, has been involved in the sport of rowing for the past 15 years of his life. He won the gold medal with his team in the Paris 2024 Olympics in the coxless men’s four event. Mead had also competed in the Tokyo 2020 games.

In the world of rowing, the event involves a four man team on the boat without the coxswain. A coxswain’s position is that of steering the boat and directing the team in the boat. This was the first U.S. gold in this event since first captured in 1960. Mead was also selected and honored with the carrying of the U.S. flag alongside fellow Olympian Katie Ledecky in the closing ceremony for the games.

San Miguel students spent time with Mead on Wednesday afternoon reflecting on his career in rowing and asking him a series of questions on his life and upbringing and his accomplishments. Mead also spoke on his inspirations and on sacrifices that he has had to endure doing in his career.

At the conclusion of his presentation, San Miguel’s Executive Director Father Mark Connell alongside students, presented Mead with official San Miguel rowing gear before students prepared for their weekly “6K Wednesday” practice. This practice involves students conducting practice on rowing machines, looking to achieve their personal best stats.

As students prepared for practice, Mead said he was always excited to talk to kids about the sport of rowing but was equally excited about the mission and work of San Miguel with the sport. When he first heard about San Miguel and was asked to come visit, he immediately said yes to the opportunity and was excited to come visit. He also said he felt very welcomed upon arriving at the school.

“All the kids have been super well spoken and attentive and willing to listen to me ramble on for an hour or so and watch both of the races.

They all asked really great questions after I spoke for a little bit,” said Mead. “To see a school out here where there isn’t a lot of rowing or there wasn’t 20 years ago and to have the whole student body participating in the sport and everyone’s having fun together, and hopefully the sport will open up the same kinds of doors for them as it did for me, it’s just really cool to see. ”

Mead said he’d love to come back to San Miguel to see the students practice when they’re on water in the springtime and he wants to do all he can to help bring attention to the program and mission at the school.

Mead also said he may want to pursue coaching later on in his career.

Prior to practice, Emiliano Cervantes said he felt nervous but also excited to have Mead observe the practice overall because he said he wanted to do good. Cervantes has been rowing for the past four years and joined the team following in the footsteps of his older brother. Cervantes will be moving on to high school next year and has greater pursuits of Princeton University, becoming a coxswain and he wants to row in the Olympics one day.

Per the school, San Miguel Academy Rowing is one of the largest middle school programs in the country with 100% student participation. Its mission is to increase educational opportunities for its student-athletes.

The program has helped students secure top-level educational opportunities in high school and college. San Miguel Academy rowers have qualified for and competed in the US Rowing Youth National Championships, finishing in the top ten several times. San Miguel Academy Rowing is currently sponsored by the New York Giants Foundation, A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund, the Head of the Charles/ Philadelphia Gold Cup Foundation, and US Rowing.

“I’ve been teaching better than 40 years. Nothing changes a human being like rowing. Nothing creates a better academic student than rowing, because we are students, and then we’re athletes. That’s what this is about, right that these young people will continue to take their education seriously and be able to access some of the better schools in the country,” said Father Connell.

The welcoming of Mead came about through Herbert and Bobbi Gstalder of the Humanas Foundation who have been longtime friends of Father Connell and through another mutual connection. The Gstalder’s helped put the visit in motion and wanted Mead to come visit the school. The Gstalder’s are supportive of all the success of the academics and rowing program of San Miguel and look forward to what lies ahead for it.

“Rowing in particular, the discipline of rowing and teamwork of rowing lends itself to building character that I think is incredibly important for the middle school age child,” said Bobbi. “I think Father Mark is giving them the tools to be able to achieve what they have.”

“I was here when Father Mark first started the program many, many years ago. We’ve been here other times, but to come into this room and see 100% of the students involved in a rowing program is almost beyond.

I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this before,” said Herbert.

During the course of practice, Mead, school staff and other guests saw student rowers achieve their personal best in practice. Students came back up to Mead to seek further advice on competition preparation and practice pointers before Mead was later taken on a tour of the facility.