OUTDOOR TRIUMPH TO INDOOR FUN:
Joan von Blom, winner in the
lightweight women’s 55-59 age
category at the 2008 CRASH-B Sprints.
Joan van Blom
14
united states indoor rowing team
regular Joan Van Blom holds two indoor
rowing world Record: one in the 55-59
year-old lightweight women’s category
(7:33.4), the other in the 50-54 year-old
women’s category (7: 22. 6). But Van
Blom’s rowing goes far beyond sitting
on an ergometer breaking records.
Van Blom competed at the Olympic Games
the first time women were admitted, in 1976,
and won silver. She went on to be part of two
more Olympic teams, the 1980 team that
boycotted the Moscow Games and the 1984
team in Los Angeles. At the age of 50 the
Olympic medallist got the indoor rowing bug
and never looked back.
Van Blom discovered rowing in 1970 before
it was an Olympic sport for women. An
enthusiastic coach, Tom McKibbon, drew
Van Blom into the sport. “He was the perfect
coach for me and I feel very fortunate that
I was in the right place at the right time in
rowing,” says Van Blom who blossomed as a
rower under McKibbon’s tutelage.
After her final Olympic appearance in 1984,
Van Blom continued to row for fitness and
fun. The ergometer came into the picture
as an extra training tool when she began to
take masters rowing more seriously >>
