Lind, Joan L.
(Mrs. Van Blom)
Rowing
b. Sept. 26, 1952, Long Beach, CA
Lind began rowing in 1971, when she was a freshman at Long Beach State University. After competing in double sculls and four-oared shells, she moved into single sculls racing in 1973 and won five national championships.
At the 1976 Olympics, Lind took a silver medal, finishing just .65 second behind the winner. She won silver medals in two major European races, at Lucerne and Amsterdam, in 1980, when she again made the Olympic team. However, the U. S. boycotted the Moscow Games that year because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Lind then retired from rowing to get her masters degree from St. Thomas College in Minnesota, but she came out of retirement to row on the U. S. team that won a silver medal in the quadruple sculls event in 1984.
She is married to John Van Blom, who competed in four Olympics, from 1968 thrugh 1980, and coached that 1984 women's quadruple sculls team.