A Shaker Heights native and Hathaway Brown School alumnus, Mueller, 26, began rowing in 2005 and has been a member of six U.S. national teams including in 2013 when she won gold at the World Rowing Championships in South Korea. She and Grace Luczack earned their spot on the Summer Olympics team with a women’s pair win at the 2016 Rowing World Cup II in May.
Just being here and having to race against some of the best rowers in the world, you have to kind of get your mind in check.
Us, as a team, hardly talk about the Olympics.
You don’t want to talk about it because you don’t want to jinx it.
When I’m rowing, it’s more listening to the boat and feeling how the boat is responding to your press, feeling the rhythm.
You can kind of time that with your breath or with the movement of your body.
I actually didn’t row the Cuyahoga until after I graduated high school.
It’s a super-difficult river to navigate — all these bends and curves. Clevelanders who row out on the Cuyahoga are total badasses.
