Yale Athletics

The Yale Heavyweight Crew team’s new assistant coach this month won’t have to spend much time getting acclimated to campus. 

Olympic gold medalist and Yale Crew alum Dan Williamson ’23 is returning to New Haven as the newest member of the team’s coaching staff. 

“More important than the results of the squad is the experience that the oarsmen and coxswains have during their time here because that stays with you much longer than the four years in which you row for this team,” Williamson wrote to the News. “I have never come across a team culture that is quite like Yale’s and hope to continue to facilitate an environment in which the athletes can thrive in all facets of their lives.”

Williamson, who rowed with the upperclassmen of the current team, had a monumental career at Yale and in higher categories. The native of Auckland, New Zealand, was the first ever oarsman to sit in the stroke seat of the winning Varsity 8 boat as a first year. He was also a member of the winning 2019 and 2022 IRA National Championship crews. 

During his time as the first-year stroke seat, the team had an undefeated season, winning not only the 2019 IRA National Championships but also the four-mile race versus Harvard, the Eastern Sprints and Ivy League Championship. They also won all regular-season cup races.

“I loved my time at Yale and being a part of the crew team here was the most important phase of my athletic career – without learning from my teammates and coaches at Yale I wouldn’t have had a successful Olympic career – so in that sense it is special to be back,” Williamson wrote.  

In 2022, Williamson sat in the stroke of the Bulldog’s first varsity boat and led the team to a silver medal finish at the IRA National Championships. In the same year, they once again went undefeated in regular season cup races and won the four-mile race against Harvard while setting a course record.

“Having Dan on the coaching staff is definitely going to boost morale and give a different perspective to the athletes,” Drew Cavanaugh ’26 wrote to the News. “It is not very often someone with the pedigree Dan has come into the coaching world so having his knowledge and experience on our side is going to be extremely helpful.”

During his final year as a Bulldog, Williamson was a part of the crew that helped Yale clinch their seventh consecutive Eastern Sprints title and Ivy League Championship. To cement a colossal collegiate career, Williamson was honored with the William Neely Mallory Award, one of Yale Athletics’ most prestigious accolades. This award is given to the male senior who, “on the field of play and in life at Yale, best represents the greatest ideals of Yale tradition and American sportsmanship.”

“It’s fantastic, really. He’s obviously an incredible oarsman himself and having been in a boat with him my sophomore year, I was confident that he would be a very talented coach as well,” Coxswain Thomas Allen ’25 wrote to the News. “So far that’s been true. I think it has been a pretty seamless transition from peer to coach given the amount of respect he garnered while he was still here.” 

Williamson found great success outside of collegiate athletics, as well. 

He competed in both the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the recent 2024 Paris Games for New Zealand. At the games in Tokyo, Williamson won a gold medal in the men’s eight and was the youngest member of that crew. He was also the only oarsman in all categories to win an Olympic gold medal while still participating in competition at the NCAA/USA university level. This was New Zealand’s first gold medal in the event for almost 50 years.

In addition to his Olympic and collegiate success, Williamson is a four-time New Zealand National Champion. He earned a silver medal at the 2017 World Rowing Championships, two silver medals at the 2021 New Zealand National Championship and a bronze medal at the 2018 World Rowing Under-23 Championships.

“Of course success on the water is going to be a huge part of what motivates us as a team; everyone on this team wants to get every boat back on the dias at Eastern Sprints and our National Championship Regatta, and keep our bow ahead of Harvard’s every chance we get,” Williamson told the News. “We are already on that path – coaches Genarro and LaLiberte have a clear direction of where this team is going and how we are going to get there and I cannot wait to support them in that endeavor.” 

He joins the team as the Bulldogs host their first home race of the season, the Head of the Housatonic this past weekend. The team will travel to Boston, Mass., for the Head of the Charles next weekend.