0.00015871%. That’s the percentage of US Olympians relative to our population. It makes sense of course, because these are the best of the best. The New Trier Township doesn’t have a massive population, so having one Olympian would be quite an achievement. Having two? That’s statistically improbable. Yet, Grace Joyce and Peter Chatain, both New Trier Alumni, competed on behalf of the US in rowing over the summer at the Paris Olympics.

While they were in high school, the Olympics didn’t seem to be in the cards for either of them at the start. Chatain started rowing as a spindly 6’4 kid, clocking in at 165 lbs. Joyce admitted that she was “on the slower side in high school, especially compared to college recruiting times.”

And yet, there were still signs of the greatness to come.

Nathan Kelp-Lenane, the boys varsity head coach for rowing, said “ [Chatain] was an incredibly dedicated student of the sport. He asked so many questions, he had so many expectations, and just trying to figure it out. By the end of the sophomore year, he kind of plotted the path to be something special.”

In gym class, during the end of his sophomore year, Chatain set two goals for himself: He wanted to gain weight, and he wanted to achieve the gold standard for high school rowers, a six minute time in the 2km.

For Chatain, that all started with bulking up. He had heard about a rower who had put on dozens of pounds of muscle and had rapidly improved his times, so that was now his goal in high school. 

Chatain said, “I started working out. I was eating an insane amount of food. I had my mom make me eight eggs every morning. I basically was gaining a pound a week. Soon enough, I was 215 lbs the next year.”

It paid off. By his junior year, Chatain was posting race times that only a couple of kids in the nation could match. By his senior year, he was breaking six minutes by fractions of a second in the 2km. 

He said, “That kind of proved I was able to put in the work, and able to see some signs that I have enough to probably make the national team.”

For Joyce, the path was different. Through her journey, the one thing that was present throughout was her competitiveness.

Sandy Culver, head New Trier girls varsity rowing coach, said, “Her physical and erg scores[her times on the machines] weren’t outstanding or anything, but you could see that she had this fire in her eyes.”

In high school, she described herself as pretty average, but she began to hit her stride in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Joyce broke out in college, winning Freshman MVP for rowers, using lessons learned from her high school years to rapidly improve. Despite the success it wasn’t until the end of college, when she listened to Amanda Elmore, former Olympian rower and gold medalist, talk about her Olympic experience, that Joyce realized she too could make it to the Olympics because she could relate to Elmore.

Joyce said, “I have always kind of put Olympians on pedestals. Everyone’s a normal person, and everyone is very good at what they do. Hearing how she didn’t really feel ready, that was really relatable.”

When you ask someone what makes an Olympian, the obvious answer is physical gifts. But the stories of these two emphasize the importance of the sheer force of will required to make it to the top level. 

And make it to the top they did. At the Olympics, Chatain took home a bronze and Joyce placed 9th. It was a culmination of years and years of hard work, dedication, and pure effort. They reached the top. Nobody would criticize them for taking a break. But these are Olympians. They sure as hell are not stopping now. Their dedication and will is what makes them part of that 0.000177617%. It is baked into who they are.

“I’ve always been internally motivated. I don’t know if my parents did this on purpose, but they never asked me to achieve something. I’ve just always wanted to improve myself and I’ve just been very motivated. It’s fun to do better,” Chatain said.