Linda Muri, Freshman Lightweight Coach, 2001-
A nine-year member of the U.S. Rowing National Team and a three-time World Champion, Linda Muri is the coach of Harvard Freshman Lightweight Crew. Linda spent her first two years as a lightweight on the National Team as a sculling spare before switching disciplines to sweep in 1994, becoming a World Champion in the lightweight four. In 1995, she went on to become only one of three rowers in the previous twenty-five years to win back-to-back gold medals in the same event.
In 1997, she won a silver medal at the World Championships in the lightweight pair, and earned bronze in 1998. In August 1999, she won her third World Championship and first in the lightweight pair. She again represented the United States at the World Championships in 2000 as a member of the lightweight quad. She has won 18 National Championships, competing in the open quadruple, double, and single sculls, 500m dash, open pair and four, and lightweight eight, four, pair, quad, double, and single. In addition, she has five Head of the Charles championships to her name and is the owner of two CRASH-B Sprints hammers.
Originally from Woburn, MA, Linda graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. In 1997, she completed her Masters degree in Education from Harvard University.
Linda's prior coaching experience includes four years at the Middlesex School, interim Novice coach at Simmons College, Community Rowing Inc., and the Craftsbury Sculling Center. In addition, she spent three years as the Freshman Lightweight Coach at Cornell where she led her first freshman eight to a silver medal at the 1999 Eastern Sprints.
More recently, Linda coached her first freshman eight to a gold medal at the 2004 Eastern Sprints, winning her first Gary W. Kilpatrick Cup. This was also Harvard's first win in the lightweight freshman eight since 1985. She now begins the 2010 season in her ninth year as Harvard's Freshman Lightweight Coach.