- Kelsey and Erin Reelick are competitive rowers from Connecticut.
- But this summer there was only room for one of them on the U.S. rowing team.
A sister made the ultimate sacrifice so her brother could go to the Paris Olympics with the U.S. rowing team.
Kelsey and Erin Reelick were hoping to make the team this summer and were set to compete for the final spot at selection camp, before Erin withdrew.
Neither sister has ever been to the Olympics, although after Kelsey competed in the last two world championships (while Erin spent more than two years away from the sport), Erin felt her sister was more deserving.
“I still think it’s the right decision,” Erin said. CT Insider Information. “I’m really excited for her. I think it’s a dream that we both had. I think at the end of the day our parents will be able to go and watch and support one of us, and I think that’s amazing and that’s why I’m happy.
Erin also reportedly told Kelsey, “You’ve been working on this for more years than I have. You should take advantage of this and win a (damn) medal.”
The Reelick sisters are described as very close and competed together at Princeton.
Kelsey (left) poses with her teammates in Paris ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.
The sisters (Kelsey is 32 and Erin is 30) are described as incredibly close and went through the junior ranks together, later winning Ivy League championships at Princeton in college.
After college, Kelsey took a three-year break from the sport, while Erin eventually competed at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships.
But it will be Kelsey who will go to Paris and she clearly has mixed feelings about it.
“It was really hard and it’s still hard to be super happy and excited to go to the Olympics with the pain of my very deserving and wonderful sister not going to the Olympics,” Kelsey said.
Erin (right) is seen competing in the World Rowing Cup for the United States in 2019.
She added: “Every now and then I think about how I got here and I regret it and I feel sad, and I think that will always be there in the back of my mind,” Kelsey said. “It will always be kind of an asterisk next to this experience for me.”
Erin added that she sometimes feels “guilty” for “ruining” Kelsey and her parents’ experience.
Erin will not be attending the Olympics.
The women’s rowing events will begin on July 27.
