Women's Crew

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I am writing in response to Andy Fine's February 20th article on last weekend's CRASH-B Sprints. I was horrified and, unfortunately, not very surprised that Fine's article did not once mention the presence of Radcliffe Crew at the event. Not only was a large portion of the squad competing, we had a very competitive group of athletes qualifying for the finals. In the open collegiate division, Kristi Stoddard and Cecile Ulbrich qualified with 2500 meter times of 9.01.6 and 9.05.5 in their respective heats. Stoddard rowed a time of 8.53 to finish second in the final only to a Canadian entrant, placing her at the top of all U.S. collegiate women on the ergometer. Light-weight Aoibheann Sweeney's heat time of 9.33.5 qualified her for the world lightweight final competition, in which she came in sixth, with a time of 9.31. Our lightweight coach Holly Metcalf won the Masters world championship in a time of 9.17.

There is no excuse for The Crimson to neglect to even mention this large portion of the Harvard undergraduate rowing population participating in the event. The article shows the Crimson's lack of sensitivity to women's crew and women's athletics in general in terms of their considered unimportance and lack of representation in sports articles. Molly Schwarzburg '91   [This letter was co-signed by 26 members of Radcliffe crew.]