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BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The 2024 Olympics will open a little over a month from now in Paris, and a handful of athletes with ties to our area will make the trip. That includes Jacob Plihal, a native of Washington who trains at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.
Plihal earned his place in single sculls by finishing second at the final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May.
A former baseball player himself, Plihal was the the Vermont Lake Monsters game on Wednesday night to meet fans and sign some autographs. He says his time in Craftsbury have helped prepare him for his first trip to the sports’ bigget stage, and he’s looking forward to representing the U.S. over in France.
“I spent about a year training out of a club in Philadelphia, they’ve got a big rowing culture there,” Plihal said. “And through that, training camps, and competitions, I’d come to know Hap Whelpley, our head coach and some of the Craftsbury rowers. I really liked kind of the atmosphere and coaching style that he had and just the team dynamics in general. So it seemed like a good choice to change up programs. I think it’s gonna be pretty tight and tough racing. There’s a field of 32 in my event I want to say, so there’s gonna be a lot of really high quality, caliber scullers out there. Excited to race, some of them I’ve raced before and some of them I haven’t raced yet.”