Kristine Karlson, Class of 1985

Having rowed in eights for four years at Williams, you went on after graduating in 1985 and at medical school at the University of Connecticut to teach yourself single sculling in your spare time. With remarkable speed you launched yourself into international competition, winning a gold medal in the lightweight women’s single sculls at the World Championships in 1988, and entering the record book in 1989 when you successfully defended your title and went on to earn a gold medal in double sculls at the World Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia. Never before had a woman earned gold medals in two events at a World Championships, and no man had done so for nearly 70 years. Your achievements led to your being named the U.S. Olympic Committee Female Rower of the Year, the State of Connecticut’s Female Athlete of the Year, and, by the United States Rowing Association, Female Athlete of the Year. Although lightweight single sculling is not an Olympic sport, you achieved your long-held dream by competing in a quad scull in the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. “Rowing,” you have said, “attracts the kind of person who is too much of a klutz to do anything else,” but, of course we all know better. After all, while rising to the top of your sport in an astonishingly short time, you have managed also to complete your medical studies and to begin your career in the practice of family medicine. In recognition of your distinguished achievement as a world champion student-athlete, Williams College is proud to present you with its Bicentennial Medal.