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Dan Walsh (center) poses with men's crew coach John Pojednic and athletics director Peter Roby, holding Walsh's Olympic medal.Realizing a true “one world, one dream” goal, former Northeastern rower Dan Walsh, BPH’02, came home from the Olympic Games in Beijing last summer with a bronze medal.
Though he was the only Husky to medal in China, Walsh was in the company of two other Northeastern athletes during the Games. Also competing were rower Marshall Godschalk, a business major who graduated in December, and former communications major Zara Northover, AS’07, a shot-putter.
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Walsh earned his bronze as a member of the U.S. men’s heavyweight eight crew. His boat came in behind Canada and runner-up Great Britain.
Godschalk, rowing in the lightweight four for the Netherlands, finished sixth in the championship race.
Northover, representing her parents’ homeland, Jamaica, placed sixteenth in her preliminary flight.
After he returned to the United States, Walsh was honored at several different celebrations: at a breakfast hosted by Northeastern; on the Oprah Winfrey Show, alongside other U.S. Olympians; and at Fenway Park, where he and six other medalists with New England ties threw out ceremonial first pitches before a Red Sox– Orioles game.
Winning an Olympic bronze was a surreal experience, says Walsh: “Standing on the podium when they came out with a tray full of medals, I couldn’t believe that one of them was mine.”
Walsh says his medal will be permanently displayed at Henderson Boathouse, because “I want to show other athletes they can go from Northeastern to the medal stand.”
An eight-year member of the U.S. Senior National team, Walsh finished second in pairs rowing at the 2004 Olympic trials, and served as an alternate for the gold medal–winning U.S. heavyweight eight boat in Athens that year.
In 2006, Walsh won a bronze medal in the World Championship; in 2007, he finished fourth in the men’s eight. In the 2007 U.S. Rowing National Championship, he won gold medals in both the eights and the fours.
Walsh developed into a top national rower while attending Northeastern. In 1998, he received the Parker Award for outstanding freshman, and was named outstanding varsity oarsman in 1999. As a student, he was named to the U.S. World Championship team twice.
Godschalk rowed varsity for three years at Northeastern. In 2006, he helped his crew come in seventh at the IRA Regatta and fourth in the Eastern Sprints. He has competed internationally for the Netherlands since 2005.
Northover is one of the top track-and-field competitors in Northeastern history. She went undefeated in the shot put at the conference level, winning four America East Championships and two CAA Championships. She also won the shot put competition at the New England Championship and the ECAC Championship four times each. In addition, she is among Northeastern’s all-time best in the weight throw, the hammer, and the discus.
The summer after she graduated, Northover won the shot put at the Jamaican National Championship and placed ninth at the Pan American Games.