GREENFIELD — As Olympic athlete Amanda Elmore settles into her position at the stern of her boat today, local residents will be cheering.
Elmore, 25, is representing the United States in rowing during the 2016 Olympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Though Elmore is originally from West Lafayette, Ind., and lives in Princeton, N.J., her cousins living in Greenfield and Leverett feel personally invested in Elmore’s rowing success.
“This doesn’t happen to every family,” said Elmore’s cousin, Peggy Carey, 70, of Leverett. “I’m extremely proud of her and her parents (David and Janet Elmore), too, because they’ve always been there for her and that makes a tremendous difference.”
According to Carey, Elmore first showed an interest in rowing while attending Purdue University for biology in 2009, and her grandparents, Edward and Dorothy Fox, purchased two rowboats for the university. Elmore was inspired by her two brothers, Andrew and Steven, who both competed in rowing.
The family relocated to Indiana for employment reasons, but Susan Maher, another of Elmore’s cousins, said she has several Greenfield connections. Maher, 66, lives in Greenfield herself. Elmore’s cousin Mary Shippee, her grandmother Dorothy Maher Fox and her great-grandmother Grace Maher have all resided in Greenfield.
“She’s a very hard-working young woman, very sincere, very smart and obviously very strong,” Maher said of her cousin.
However, because Elmore lives so far away, neither Maher or Carey have ever watched their cousin row, making watching her in the Olympic Games particularly exciting.
“I’m, hopefully, sure that they’re going to get gold,” Maher said.
Carey said Elmore rowed eight hours a day in preparation leading up to the Olympics, and is taking time off from her graduate education to compete. According to Elmore’s biography at USRowing.org, she is studying biomedical sciences at the University of Michigan.
“How many times do you have a chance to go to the Olympics?” Maher said.