Just one day ahead of the grand opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Maryland, hosted its own celebration – a pep rally to showcase the community’s love, support and pride for three alumnae Olympians – Katie Ledecky (class of 2015), Phoebe Bacon (class of 2020) and Erin Gemmell (class of 2023) – who are members of the U.S. Women’s Swim Team competing in Paris.
More than 600 enthusiastic Stone Ridge Gator fans of all ages – many wearing specially-designed Bacon/Gemmell/Ledecky Team USA Olympic T-shirts showing a figure swimming beneath the Eiffel Tower – turned out in full force on July 25 to the Bethesda campus of the all-girls k-12 Catholic school sponsored by the Religious of the Sacred Heart.
Loud cheers, lots of patriotic red, white and blue colors, dozens of homemade posters and countless U.S. flags were on hand to honor the hometown Olympians. The 2024 Summer Olympic games, which begin Friday, July 26 and continue through Sunday, August 11, will be broadcast on NBC.
“We are beyond excited to be able to be there to support her. We are thrilled!” said Philippa Bacon, mother of 22-year-old Phoebe Bacon, who is competing in her second straight Olympics as a 200-meter backstroke swimmer.
For the Tokyo Games in 2021, spectators were not permitted to attend due to the global pandemic. This time around, Bacon’s family, including her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, as well as family friends, are excited to be their own cheering section in the viewing stands for Phoebe’s races. “I think we are taking over half the plane (to Paris),” Philippa Bacon told the Catholic Standard.
Before the rousing assembly began, rally-goers spent time signing large postcards, writing short, but sweet words of congratulations, encouragement and gratitude to each of the Stone Ridge Olympians. Messages included: “Good luck - we know you can do it!”, “Bring back Gold!” and “Thank you for being such a great role model to my girls – 8 & 6 years old!”
Held in the school’s gymnasium, the rally also featured the Stone Ridge Olympic teammates in a slide show of photos in and out of the pool, as well as video greetings from them, all of whom swam for their high school Gators team. Local television news channels were also present to capture the pre-Olympic excitement. In individual pre-taped messages, Ledecky, Bacon and Gemmell each expressed gratitude to the Stone Ridge and Montgomery County communities for their longtime support on their Olympic journeys.
Then from Croatia, where the U.S. Swim Team trained prior to the Olympics, the three Gator Olympians, posing together and wearing the special Stone Ridge Team USA T-shirts, relayed joint messages back to the community – thanking everyone for their love and support and for cheering them on in Paris. “We can’t wait to start racing!” said Ledecky, 27, competing in her fourth Olympics. Bacon added, “And thanks for these awesome T-shirts!”
Also in a video message, Catherine Ronan Karrels, the Head of School at Stone Ridge School who traveled to Paris to root for her former students, thanked everyone for turning out and promised live swimming race updates throughout the games. “Go Gators! Go Katie! Go Erin! Go Phoebe! Go Team USA!” she said.
Malcolm McCluskey, the head of the Stone Ridge Upper School, told the crowd that all three Olympian alumnae represent their alma mater beautifully and they continue to embody the school’s spirit. “They are amazing ambassadors not only of Stone Ridge, but also the USA,” he said.
The Stone Ridge Gators’ swimming and diving coach, Bob Walker, who could not be present for the rally, said in a video message that his pride for the three Olympians is indescribable. “Not only are they great swimmers, but great role models. Good luck in Paris!” he said.
Andrew Maguire, Stone Ridge’s Athletic Director, who served as the rally’s emcee, said of the former Gators turned Olympians, “We are so proud of them. All their hard work and dedication has culminated in this, and they have reached the pinnacle of their sport.” Maguire also led the crowd in several rousing “USA Gator!” cheers which were broadcast live and recorded for the Stone Ridge Olympians in Paris.
In announcing the rally last month, Stone Ridge released a statement, praising their alumnae Olympians as inspirations for their dedication to swimming and true grit when competing on the world’s stage in their sport.
While it is not uncommon for swimmers from the same college to be named to an Olympic team together, it is nearly unprecedented for three athletes who attended the same high school to do so. Only 20 women were named to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Swimming Team. With Stone Ridge alumnae earning three of those spots, 15 percent of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Swimming Team is composed of Stone Ridge Gators.
Evie Kalas, a Stone Ridge fourth grader, proudly held her homemade poster featuring her school’s Olympians. She said she’s been cheering for Katie Ledecky for her entire life and admires all three because “They are the world’s best swimmers!” Her dad, Bob Kalas, taught both Ledecky and Bacon social studies at Little Flower School in Bethesda, where the girls attended elementary school and where both families are members of the parish. A sign of support for the swimmers is displayed on a wall outside Little Flower School on Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda.
Ledecky, who won her first gold in the 800-meter freestyle race at the London games in 2012 as a 15-year-old rising Stone Ridge sophomore, will attempt to add to her already-record-setting collection of Olympic medals. In Paris, Ledecky’s races will include the 400-meter, 800-meter, and 1500-meter women’s freestyle events, as well as the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, racing along with teammate Erin Gemmell. If Ledecky wins the events she is favored in – the 800-meter and 1500-meter – she will have earned the most gold medals by a female Olympic swimmer and a possible third would crown her the winningest female gold medal Olympian in history.
Her autobiography, “Just Add Water: My Swimming Life” was recently published by Simon & Schuster. Several copies of the book were raffled off during the rally. In previous interviews with the Catholic Standard, Ledecky spoke of her strong Catholic faith and how she relies on prayer, especially by reciting a Hail Mary before every race.
Bacon, the 2021 and 2024 NCAA Champion in the 200-meter backstroke, will be swimming on her second straight Olympic team this summer, with the goal of making the podium after a fifth-place finish in Tokyo. The youngest of the group, Gemmell, of the Stone Ridge Class of 2023, represented the U.S. on the World Championship team in 2023 and earned a silver in the 4x200 Freestyle Relay. Gemmell’s dad, Bruce, coached Ledecky for several years at the National Capital Swim Club. In addition to the 4x200-meter relay, Gemmell will be racing in the women’s 200-meter freestyle event.
Eleanor Sun of Stone Ridge’s class of 2023 and a classmate of Gemmell’s, also competed at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Indianapolis last month. The Princeton University swimmer said although she didn’t make the cut for this year’s Olympic team, she loved being among her fellow Stone Ridge athletes and friends in such a large-scale athletic setting. “It was awesome to see them make the team,” she said, adding that her Gator swim teammates continue to be very unassuming and kind people even at the height of their sport.
Karrels, Stone Ridge's Head of School who attended the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in June, said in a statement at the time, “What a thrill to see them hugging in the pool and then being announced as Olympians together that night! And when Phoebe made the team, within seconds of completing her swim, I received a text from Katie with a ‘Wooooohooo!!!’”
“The Olympics are inspirational both as an expression of our global community and also because of the triumph of individuals and the hope and inspiration they model in terms of the human spirit,” wrote Karrels. “My heart is bursting with pride in these young women.”
Among the youngest Gators at the rally was 8-year-old Kate Reilly, a rising fourth grader, who held a homemade poster that read, “I was Erin for Halloween.” She explained that on one Halloween, Erin Gemmell when she was little had dressed like Katie Ledecky as an Olympian, and now Reilly has proudly kept up the tradition. Nowadays, Reilly said she looks up to all the Stone Ridge Olympic swimmers and can’t wait to compete just like they do. “It’s probably my favorite thing in the world to do,” she said of swimming. This weekend, Reilly is swimming freestyle in the Montgomery County Swim League All-Star Relay Meet, and she hopes the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, Australia will be in her future.
