Kristina Wagner '15 is Tokyo bound. Wagner and her partner Gevvie Stone secured a spot in this summer's Olympic Games by capturing the women's double sculls final at the second 2020 U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Trials in West Windsor, New Jersey.
 
The two pulled away from the field over the final 500 meters to win by nearly four seconds.
 
After finishing second and third, respectively, in the single sculls event at the first 2020 team trials in late February, Stone and Wagner came together in the double. Six weeks later, the duo is heading to Tokyo.
 
"I've been working hard for the last four years, really hard the past two years," Wagner, who stroked Yale's varsity four to a second-place finish in the grand final at the 2015 NCAA Championship, told USRowing. "When the Olympics were postponed, I saw that as an opportunity for myself and capitalized on it. Getting in the double has been an awesome opportunity in learning from Gevvie, and I can't wait to keep doing it. Ninety-nine days (until Tokyo)!"
 
Stone, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the women's single sculls, earned her third Olympic berth.
 
Stone and Wagner got off the line in third position before moving into second place as the crews approached the midway point of the race. The duo then began to reel in the early leaders, Meghan O'Leary and Ellen Tomek. Stone and Wagner came up even just after the 1,000-meter mark and then made a strong move with about 650 meters to go to begin to move away from the rest of the field.
 
As they crossed the 1,500-meter mark, Stone and Wagner had almost a length on O'Leary and Tomek and they continued to build on that margin through the finish. At the line, Stone and Wagner won with a time of 7:07.21.
 
"I could not be more proud of Kristi, her determination is awesome," said Will Porter, The Friends of YWC Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "She is a great athlete who has worked very hard for this. She deserves all the credit. She is an Olympian and will be forever."
 
Wagner joins an elite group of Yale women's crew Olympians that includes legends of the sport Chris Ernst, Ginny Gilder, Anne Warner, Taylor Ritzel, Ashley Brzozowicz, Tess Gerrand, Jamie Redman and Rachel Jeffers.
 
Wagner becomes the second rower with Yale ties to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, joining Christina Bourmpou, who will be a first year in the fall and will race in a Greek pair.