Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008

Modesto congratulates its gold medal winner

A huge and hearty congratulations to Erin Cafaro of Modesto and her teammates on the U.S. women's eight rowing team, which won a gold medal Sunday in Beijing.

Cafaro, a 2001 Modesto High graduate, is the first Modestan since Tisha Venturini-Hoch to bring home a gold medal. Venturini-Hoch was part of the 1996 U.S. women's soccer team that won gold in Atlanta.

Cafaro followed in the footsteps of Alison Cox of Turlock, who was part of the silver medal women's crew team at Athens in 2004.

Like Cox, Cafaro didn't row while growing up. She played basketball and ran cross-country. After graduating from Modesto High's International Baccalaureate program, she went on to the University of California at Berkeley, where she took up crew. In 2005, her Cal team won the national championships. She's been speeding along ever since on the U.S. national team.

At Modesto High on Monday, staff members were discussing how to honor the newly famous Panther. We hope the community will come up with a way to put Cafaro and fellow Olympian Suzy Powell in the hometown spotlight, where they belong. While Powell didn't medal in the discus, she once again displayed what a class athlete she is.

We congratulate both of them.