Tokyo and Beyond

Dr. Stone’s experience in Tokyo was an exciting and somewhat bizarre whirlwind, set apart from her previous Olympic appearances by the frequent COVID testing and plexiglass partitions in every cafeteria. “We got really good at thinking about lemons while we spit in tubes,” she said with a laugh. It was weird that fans couldn’t attend the races, but she joked, “We’re rowers, so we’re not used to having a lot of spectators at our events!”

Dr. Stone and her teammate raced well enough to make the finals in Tokyo, finishing in fifth place. After that race, she embraced the end of her championship career (she’ll be moving on to masters-level rowing competitions now) and was ready to turn her attention back to emergency medicine. Still, her Olympic appearances may not be over. She hopes to complete a sports fellowship with the goal of becoming a team physician for USRowing.

Returning to residency in the middle of a COVID-19 surge isn’t how she pictured it, but her time on the water has taught her how to weather tough conditions. “I had someone ask me in an interview, ‘Won’t it be hard to return to medicine?’ I told them yes, it will absolutely be challenging. But something being challenging has never stopped me before.”