Caryn Davies

Caryn Davies

Davies at Pembroke College, Oxford
Personal information
Born	April 14, 1982 (1982-04-14) (age 42) Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Medal record Women's rowing Representing the  United States Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Women's eight 2012 London Women's eight 2004 Athens Women's eight World Rowing Championships 2002 Seville Women's eight 2003 Milan Women's four w/o cox 2006 Eton, UK Women's eight 2007 Munich Women's eight World Rowing Cup 2004 Munich Women's eight 2004 Lucerne Women's eight 2008 Lucerne Women's eight 2011 Lucerne Women's eight 2012 Lucerne Women's eight 2006 Lucerne Women's eight 2004 Munich Women's pair 2005 Munich Women's quad sculls

Caryn Davies (born April 14, 1982) is an American rower. She is the winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal,^[1] the most prestigious international award in the sport of rowing, and the only American to have ever won this award.^[2] She won gold medals as the stroke seat of the U.S. women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[3][4][5] In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829.^[6][7][8] She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race.^[9] In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight.^[4] Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman.^[10] The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA (International Rowing Federation) crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion.^[11] In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids (spring intercollegiate races) and the Oxford University Summer Eights races (for the first time in Oxford rowing history).^[12] In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club.^[13] In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the Harvard University Athletics Hall of Fame.^[14]

Caryn Davies was elected president of the United States Olympians and Paralympians Association (USOPA) in 2021.^[15] She previously served as a vice president from 2008-2012 and 2016-2019 . She also served as athlete representative to the USRowing Board of Directors from 2004-2010.

Davies has a degree from Harvard University (A.B. Psychology, 2005), a J.D. (Doctor of Law) from Columbia Law School (2013) and an MBA from Oxford University (2015). Davies is the most decorated Harvard Olympian in the sport of rowing.^[10] During 2013–2014, Davies served as a clerk to Judge Richard Clifton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was an attorney with Goodwin Procter in Boston, Massachusetts from 2015-2019,^[16] and is now an attorney in private practice.