Harriet Morris "Holly" Metcalf (born March 25, 1958) is a six-time USA national/ Olympic team member in women's rowing, who won a gold medal in rowing at the 1984 Summer Olympics for the women's eight.
Metcalf received her B.A. in Music and English from Mount Holyoke College in 1981[1] and a masters in risk and prevention and a certificate of advanced study in human development and psychology from Harvard University.[2]
Between 1981 and 1987, she won three silver and one bronze World Championship medals. She won an Olympic gold medal in the U.S. women's eight in 1984. She is currently the founder and executive director of the Row As One Institute, the original purpose of which was to serve masters women rowers. As director of Row As One, she founded G-ROW Boston, a rowing program for girls in the Boston public schools.[3] G-ROW, which also incorporates academics and relationship-building, is now a program of Community Rowing, Inc. She also founded WeCanRow (Women Enduring Cancer Row), a program for women breast cancer survivors. Founded in Boston in 2002, WeCanRow now has chapters around the U.S.[4] In 2007, Metcalf was hired as head coach for the MIT women's openweight crew.[2]
She was a panelist at the 2003 National Gay and Lesbian Athletics Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a panel of LGBT Olympians that also included swimmer Mark Tewksbury and high jumper Brian Marshall.[5]
Metcalf is openly lesbian.[6] Holly now works as a coach for MIT rowing.[7]