Roslyn rower Lindsey Rust selected for U.S. Junior National Team

Jessica Parks

Lindsey Rust of Roslyn has been selected to compete on the world stage with the U.S.  junior national under-19 rowing team. 

Rust is the first rower with Port Rowing of Port Washington to be invited to the identification camp for the national team, a precursor to being selected.

The team is expected to be finalized by July 18, according to Port Rowing women’s head coach Isa Rahman, but he said it isn’t likely to be adjusted unless someone gets hurt before then. 

The world championship is in early August in Tokyo. Rahman said the junior national teams always inaugurate the course that is to be used for the next year’s Olympic Games going back to the 1970s.

He said it is a huge success for a member of a community-based rowing team to be selected to compete with rowers from much larger organizations. 

Rust is currently practicing at a camp in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has been since she progressed to phase two of the selection process in which the pool was narrowed from about 45 to 25 girls.

Rahman said Rust has been competing for a spot on the four or eight rowing teams.

He said being selected took a lot of hard work and planning from Rust, with whom he has been working toward this goal for a number of years.  

She really wanted to get on the junior national team this year, the last year she was eligible, in order to have a better chance to compete with the under-23 team in the future, Rahman said.

Rust put a lot of time in to achieve her goal, doing a lot of work on the margins and training when many others weren’t, her coach of three years said.

With her smaller stature at such a young age, it can be difficult to be selected, he said, but Rust’s advantage is that “she creates a lot of power for her size.” 

He said only the fastest are selected, which usually coincides with a bigger stature, but few athletes of Rust’s size are as fast as her at such a young age. 

For her observation, where coaches see how well she performs in the water, Rahman said Rust rowed on the opposite side than usual because of her willingness to do whatever it takes to get placed on the team. 

Rust, who just graduated from Roslyn High School, is going to Stanford University in California in the fall, where she will compete with the lightweight rowing team, which is considered one of the best in the country.

Share this Article