Phoenixville native Aislinn O’Brien represented the United States at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships in Bulgaria in July, writes Lochlahn March for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

O’Brien is a St. Joseph’s University graduate who rowed for three years for the Hawks. In Europe, she competed in the women’s lightweight double sculls and finished 12th overall. 

O’Brien started training with her partner, Katrina Miehlbradt, at the Conshohocken Rowing Center over the summer as part of its U-23 summer sculling program. Over 100 athletes applied for the program and around 20 were selected. 

Sculling was a new rowing technique for O’Brien, who competed in  “sweep rowing” on St. Joe’s crew. Sweep rowers have one oar while scullers use two. 

“I didn’t think I had any chance of making it to their trials boat,” said O’Brien. “I was just going to do it for fun. And then they said, ‘Come on down and jump in the boat’, and then we kind of went right to work.” 

In the end, O’Brien made it into the eleven rowers from the CRC program who rowed at Under-23 Worlds this year. 

Read more about Aislinn O’Brien in The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

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