Minnesota’s Skylar Dahl wins a silver medal in rowing at the Paris Paralympics

Skylar Dahl, a Centennial High graduate who learned to row at the Twin Cities Youth Rowing Club in Eden Prairie, won a silver medal with the United States PR3 mixed four with coxswain crew Sunday at the Paris Paralympics.

The U.S. finished 3.29 seconds behind Great Britain with a time of 6 minutes 58.59 seconds. France won the bronze medal. The U.S. has won the silver medal in the event in three straight Paralympics.

Dahl is in the bow position on a crew with Gemma Wollenschlaeger of St. Augustine Beach, Fla., Alex Flynn of Wilmington, Mass., Ben Washburne of Madison, Conn., and coxswain Emelie Eldracher of Andover, Mass. In 2023, the same crew won a silver medal at the world championships and a gold medal at Para Rowing Regatta in Paris in Dahl’s first year on the national team.

The crew is made up of current college rowers or recent college graduates who are first-time Paralympians. The group’s average age is 21.

The veteran British crew set the world record in its heat on Friday; Great Britain has won this event four Paralympics in a row and is undefeated since 2010 at the Paralympics and world championships.

“We saw the British boat set the world record two days ago, so you know that if you want to get a medal here, you’ve got to be the best of the best and the best potentially ever,” Dahl told U.S. Rowing. “I think that was something that drove us this summer. It’s a really cool feeling to now have a medal ourselves and know that we really did something very special this summer, the last couple of weeks, and then today.”

Born with bilateral club feet, Dahl was unable to continue to play soccer and basketball as she grew up. She took up rowing as a teenager and earned a scholarship to compete at the University of Virginia, where her second varsity eight boat won the ACC championship last year. Her father, Andy Dahl, was a college basketball player at Southern Utah and Augustana.