Molly Reckford, an Episcopalian and two-time Olympic rower, to compete in 2024 Paris Games

[Episcopal News Service] Two-time Olympic athlete Molly Reckford, an Episcopalian originally from Short Hills, New Jersey, is training north of Milan, Italy, ahead of the start of the 2024 Paris Games, taking place July 26-Aug. 11.

Beginning July 28, Reckford will compete in the women’s lightweight double sculls event with her rowing partner, Michelle Sechser.

“Being in a boat with others and finding that movement together – and that community together – is very satisfying and very fulfilling,” she said.

Reckford, 31, and her siblings were baptized at Christ Church in Short Hills, in the Diocese of Newark, and she still calls it her home church.

“The community at Christ Church in Short Hills is very close with my family, and they are really our extended family in a lot of ways,” she told Episcopal News Service in a July 18 telephone interview. “Christ Church has always been a big part of my life.”

The congregation reciprocates the sentiment:

“We are thrilled to cheer on Molly Reckford, daughter of Sam and Susan Reckford, as she competes in the women’s lightweight double sculls rowing event at the 2024 Paris Olympics! We wish Molly and her rowing partner, Michelle Sechser, the best of luck on this journey and proudly cheer them on from Short Hills!” read a July 17 message on Christ Church’s Facebook page.

Reckford also competed in Tokyo in 2021 in the 2020 Olympic Games, which were delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She isn’t the first Olympian in her family. Her grandfather, Bill Spencer, competed in the men’s biathlon at the 1964 and 1968 Winter Games.

Reckford said she was inspired to learn to row while a student at Phillips Exeter Academy – a coeducational, private boarding and day school in Exeter, New Hampshire – because her father – Sam Reckford, chief financial officer of the Diocese of Newark – and older sister, Samantha Reckford, rowed while students there. Reckford quickly fell in love with the sport and went on to compete as part of Phillips Exeter’s junior varsity team.

She went on to study government and psychology at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she rowed on the Ivy League institution’s team as a walk-on. When she graduated from Dartmouth in 2015, Reckford said she didn’t think she’d row again. After spending three years in California focusing on her career, she joined a local rowing club and fell back in love with the sport and the competition. She quit her full-time job and joined the United States Rowing Association’s national team in 2019.

“I wanted to give up so often when I was in high school and college because I wasn’t a priority athlete and I wasn’t getting the results; I wasn’t good enough,” Reckford said. “I got to where I am now because I fell back in love with the training and being out on the water. …There’s always a certain amount of genetics and luck and skill and talent, but you will get nowhere if you’re not willing to work hard.”

She said her professional rowing career keeps her from visiting home often, but when she is home on a Sunday, she attends worship services at Christ Church and sometimes volunteers as an usher. Previously she worked in the church’s nursery during summer worship services.

“Whenever I’ve tried to find a new church, nothing has ever felt the same as Christ Church in Short Hills. Our ties run that deep,” she said.

Reckford said she doesn’t usually talk about faith with her fellow rowing athletes because they tend to keep their relationships more business-like. They do, however, have their superstitions and rituals. The Olympics also offer spiritual opportunities for the athletes.

“One of my favorite places in the Tokyo village was this beautiful monument that was a tree, and you could write the name of a loved one who had passed away and tie it to the tree,” Reckford said. She wrote the name of her grandfather, Bill Spencer, the biathlete, who died in 2020.

“I think one of the things that Episcopalians tend to be present about – and definitely something that I feel very strongly personally – is a safe place, the importance of allowing everybody to have their own religion and practice in their own ways. I think one of the reasons why I loved that space in the Tokyo village was that it felt very holy without feeling exclusive in any way. I thought it was so wonderful and beautiful.”

Reckford said her sport will conclude during the Olympics’ first week, but she plans to stay in Paris for the duration of the games. She said she’s looking forward to interacting with fellow Team U.S.A. athletes without pandemic restrictions like those during the previous games in Tokyo.

Rowing debuted as a summer Olympics’ sport during the 1900 Paris Games, though the first modern-day competition dates to 1715. This will, however, be Reckford’s final Olympics, because the International Olympic Committee eliminated the lightweight rowing categories for future games.

“I love rowing, and I love the Olympics,” she said. “Shout out to my biggest supporters, my family and my church family at Christ Church in Short Hills.”

After the closing ceremony on Aug. 11, Reckford said she plans to visit southern France for a lavender festival to relax and “bring the cortisol down.”

— Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.