Massapequa Park rower Kristine O'Brien finally an Olympian at age 29

Kristine O’Brien drove to the rowing center. It was the morning of June 4 at Mercer County Park in New Jersey. She had been auditioning at a selection camp for the Tokyo Olympics the previous two months. Now the coaches had gathered her and some other hopefuls for the women’s eight boat, and some for the women’s four — all waiting to learn their fate.

She had wanted to be an Olympian since 2008 when she was 16 and saw the U.S. rowers out training for Beijing on a lake at Princeton. The Massapequa Park native worked so hard to make it for Rio in 2016 and wasn’t picked. Then she decided to row in the direction of the Summer Games all over again.

So there she was, hoping at 29. Women’s eight coach Tom Terhaar addressed the group:

"Congratulations, you all are going to the Olympics."

After they went for a row on Mercer Lake, O’Brien left the boathouse and walked to her car. She FaceTimed her mom, Kathleen. They both started to cry. She called her dad, her twin sister, her boyfriend, other close friends. Just spreading the news.

Olympic-sized dreams sometimes do come true.

"I started rowing 16 years ago at St. John and I’ve been at the USRowing training center for [almost] eight years," O’Brien said. "You just kind of take things a day at a time. The end goal is Olympic gold. You need to make the Olympic team in order to win Olympic gold.

"And so it’s just like something you dream of for so long, and now it’s finally happening, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s just so exciting. I had tears in my eyes all day long."

O’Brien lives in Princeton to be near the training sites at the university and Mercer in West Windsor. She’s honored to represent the U.S. at the Olympics. She was actually born in Ireland. The family moved to Massapequa Park when she was about 2 1/2.

The roots of her Olympic journey stem back to West Islip in 2005.

Her aunt, Bridget Fatuzzo, is a guidance counselor at St. John the Baptist. She told O’Brien’s parents about its rowing program. They encouraged her to go out for it. O’Brien was reluctant.

"I didn’t think rowing was a real sport," she said.

She went to tryouts anyway, made the team and claimed a state title in the novice girls four as a freshman.

"I think that was like the first moment where I realized maybe I can be good at this," O’Brien said.

Next stop, Virginia. She competed for coach Kevin Sauer, becoming a three-time first-team All-American and contributing to two national championship teams. Her varsity eight boat also won a national title when she was a junior in 2012.

"She has the ‘it’ factor," Sauer said. "She has one speed and that’s ‘on.’ There’s no ‘off’ for her. That’s the way she attacks it. She was the type of kid that no matter what boat I put her in, it would win."

From there, O’Brien became a four-time world champion. She struck gold in the eight at the 2012 and 2013 World Rowing Under 23 Championships, in the four at the 2015 World Rowing Championships and in the eight at the 2018 World Rowing Championships.

Retirement, though, crossed her mind in 2016. The cut at the Olympic selection camp really hurt.

"It was the day they were naming the team when she got cut," her mom said. "She was completely shattered."

Sauer was in Princeton and asked her a question over a meal: "What do you think about coaching?"

He had an opening for an assistant. She ultimately accepted.

"She did a great job, good recruiter," Sauer said.

She said her time around the Virginia team "helped me love rowing again and gave me a desire to go back to training."

Kathleen also wanted her to make a U-turn.

"I was trying to push her to go back because I knew that she’d never be happy if she didn’t do it," she said. "I used to say to her, ‘Have no regrets.’ "

O’Brien left coaching and returned to the training center in late May of 2017. Now it’s on to Japan. Sauer said he’s "almost like a proud papa."

After making her calls in the lot that day she became an Olympian, O’Brien finally began to drive home. She had one thought:

"Wow, I did it. I finally did it."