Robert "Rob" Desino is a former champion collegiate

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

who rowed with the Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association. In the 1996

National Collegiate Rowing Championship The now defunct, short-lived National Collegiate Rowing Championship, often simply called the "Cincinnati Regatta," was a championship for men's and women's collegiate rowing, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, between 1982 and 1996. It pitted the winners o ...

, Desino and his brother Chris won first place in the men's

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") ar ...

race, and were part of the first-place 4+ team, thus helping the Penn team to their best showing at the Nationals since 1985. Desino competed at the

1997 World Rowing Championships The 1997 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 31 August to 7 September 1997 at the Lac d'Aiguebelette, France. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federatio ...

. The Desino brothers were later named to the

USRowing The United States Rowing Association, commonly known as USRowing, is the national governing body for the sport of Rowing in the United States. It serves to promote the sport on all levels of competition, including the selection and training of ...

Team and spent the next four years living in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

training for the Olympics. During that time Robert suffered a career-ending injury.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male rowers {{US-rowing-bio-stub