Bend high grad and OSU senior wins gold medal at rowing world championships

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend High grad Evan Park and her USA rowing team won first place at the U23 world championships in Bulgaria this week. 

The team took gold in the women's eight, a common rowing event, with a time four seconds ahead of second place Germany.

This is the third straight gold medal for Team USA.

Her parents were both rowers in college, but Evan was not a rower until she walked on the team two years ago. 

 "It's hard to imagine that I hardly knew what rowing was two years ago, and now I'm at the world championship level,” Park said. “It feels really crazy, like training for it was tough, but I made a lot of friends in the process and all of our hard work paid off."

Park hopes to bring what she learned with the national team back to Corvallis when the Beavers season starts next spring.

The 2024 Olympic rowing team is already set, but Park could be a name to watch out for during the 2028 Olympics.

Shell is set to graduate with a chemistry degree next spring, but plans to start a masters and row for another year.