Walsh earns Olympic bronze; Godschalk finishes sixth
Aug. 17, 2008
Boston, MA

Former Northeastern men's rower Dan Walsh won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Beijing after the United States men's heavyweight eight boat finished third in the A-Final on Sunday. Marshall Godschalk, also a former Northeastern rower, finished sixth in the lightweight four finals.

Walsh and his teammates finished the race at 5:25.34 behind winner Canada, which came in at 5:23.89, and runner-up Great Britain, which finished at 5:25.11. Canada led the entire race, cruising to the victory by four seats. The United States was in fourth at the 1000-meter mark, but turned it on late to surpass the Netherlands. The U.S., neck and neck with Great Britain over the final 500 meters, had a chance at silver, but a last-second push by Great Britain put them over the top for second place.

The race can be seen on this nbcolympics.com video.

To reach the finals, Walsh's boat finished second to Great Britain in its heat on Monday and then won its repechage heat on Tuesday to advance to the final. The repechage race is a second-chance for crews to advance.

Walsh, an eight-year member of the U.S. Senior National team, finished second in pairs rowing at the ’04 Olympic trials. In ’06 he won the bronze medal in the World Championship and finished fourth in ’07 in the men’s eight. In the ’07 U.S. Rowing National Championship, Walsh won gold medals in both the eights and fours. This was Walsh's second trip to Olympics. He served as an alternate for the gold medal-winning U.S. heavyweight eight boat in Athens in 2004.

At Northeastern, Walsh developed into one of the nation’s top rowers. He received the Parker Award for outstanding freshman in 1998 and went on to win Outstanding Varsity Oarsman in ’99. During his years at NU, Walsh was named to the U.S. World Championship team twice and helped his team finish 6th at the IRA and 3rd at the Eastern Sprints in ’01. Walsh is from Norwalk, Conn., and rowed for the Norwalk River Rowing Club prior to Northeastern.

Godschalk's Netherlands boat finished sixth in the finals of the lightweight four without coxswain with a time of 5:54.06. Denmark won the race at 5:47.76 to take gold while Poland and Canada earned silver and bronze, respectively.

The race can be seen on this nbcolympics.com video. The lightweight four finals can be seen at the 43:00 mark of the video.

To reach the finals, Godschalk and the Dutch boat finished second to Ireland in its heat to reach the semifinals, where they finished third behind Poland and Canada to claim the final spot in the finals.

At Northeastern Godschalk rowed three years in the varsity boat. In 2006 he helped his crew come in seventh at the IRA Regatta and fourth in the Eastern Sprints. He has been competing in international competition for the Netherlands since 2005.

Rowing content on nbcolympics.com
Photo: Heavyweight Eight Medal Ceremony
Video: Heavyweight Eight Finals
Video: Lightweight Four Finals (race at the 43:00 mark)
Story: Canadian men's eight gets gold
Profile: Dan Walsh
Profile: Marshall Godschalk