USRowing names Senior, Beach Sprints and Para Athletes of the Year

USRowing has named six more athletes as 2024 Athletes of the Year to be honored on Attager Row at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta on Saturday, October 19, at 5 p.m.

Todd Vogt (Rochester, N.Y./University of Buffalo) and Gemma Wollenschlaeger (St. Augustine, Fla./Temple University) earned the Para National Team Athletes of the Year. Chris Bak (Cincinnati, Ohio/University of Cinncinati) and Annelise Hahl (Cary, N.C./Triangle Rowing) are the Beach Sprint National Team Athletes of the Year. Finally, Michael Grady (Pittsburgh, Pa./Cornell University) and Meghan Musniski (Naples, N.Y./Ithaca College) have been titled the Senior Team Athletes of the Year.

Vogt has been a part of four national teams, and he competed at his first Paralympics in 2024 where he saw a seventh-place finish in Paris in the PR3 mixed double. Wollenschlaeger, along with her boat mates, won silver in the PR3 four with coxswain at the 2024 Paralympic Games. At the 2023 World Championships Vogt and Wollenschlaeger raced together in the PR3 mixed double sculls and won a silver medal.

On the beach sprints side Bak and Hahl, both four-time national team members, notched gold medals in their respective events in 2024 on the international stage. Bak raced to a first-place finish at the World Beach Sprint Finals in the men’s solo and Hahl won the junior women’s solo and junior women’s double sculls events.

Grady, who recently joined the Washington Huskies men’s rowing team as an assistant coach, is a two-time Olympian and a gold medalist in the men’s four at the Paris Olympics.

“It was certainly a big year for me,” said Grady. “It’s been a lot of work and finally seeing the success of it all. My contribution to the team—the energy, culture, drive, and mission we had being fulfilled is incredible. I really didn’t anticipate this was the way things would go. I knew we had a chance to win based on how we performed last year and the time we were together in the boat but it’s been a long journey.”

The Carie Graves Female Athlete of the Year, Meghan Musniski, is a four-time Olympian. She has competed at five world championships and holds two Olympic gold medals. Musniski has represented the United States on the national stage for over 14 years.

“Sara Hendershot who is on one of the USRowing athlete committees,” remembered Musniski. “She told me that the men and women on the senior team had voted me as the female athlete of the year. I was surprised and really honored because it’s an award that has nothing to do with your immediate results and is all to do with what your teammates think about you as a teammate—your work ethic, drive, and you as an overall person. That’s really special because I’ve trained with a lot of people who are incredibly hard working and deserving of the award.”

Musniski is one of the most decorated rowers on the women’s senior team. However, she never could have predicted her success. This year’s Olympics was especially meaningful for her, getting to experience it with her husband, Skip Kielt, who coached the senior men’s 2x.

“If you told 25-year-old Meghan that in the next 15 years she would have five world titles, two Olympic golds, and four appearances at an Olympics I would have laughed at you. It’s amazing. The athletes that I train with make it such a special experience. It’s a pretty unique experience to be at my fourth and final Olympics with Skip’s hopefully first of many Olympics. Getting to experience that as a couple is not something that a lot of people can say.”

Musniski, Grady, Vogt, Wollenschlaeger, Bak and Hahl will be honored for their incredible success along with the USRowing Under 19 and Under 23 Athletes of the Year at the 2024 Head of the Charles.

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