Meghan Musnicki ’05 won her second Olympic rowing gold medal Aug. 13 as part of the United States women’s eight boat at the Olympic Games in Rio. The team defeated second place Great Britain by more than two seconds.

Musnicki was a three-year member of the Ithaca College women’s rowing team and was part of back-to-back national championship boats in 2004 and 2005. She was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

Junior Heidi Mickunas, a member of the women’s rowing team, said watching Musnicki row at the Olympics was inspiring for the whole team.

“Seeing Meghan Musnicki row for the U.S. shows that an individual from a DIII program can be incredibly successful,” Mickunas said. “She’s worked so hard to get to where she is now and is definitely a huge role model for the team. It makes being apart of IC Crew even more of an honor, and it’s definitely a motivating factor for many of us on the team.”

Musnicki was one of two returning members from the 2012 team, where the U.S. won gold by about 1.5 seconds. She was also a part of five gold medal teams at the World Championships. The U.S. rowing eight has not lost an Olympic or World Championships competition in 11 years.