The cheers echoing throughout Bethesda’s Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart gym on Thursday were almost overwhelming.
“U! S! A!”
“Katie! Phoebe! Erin!”
“Gators!”
The more than 800 Stone Ridge community members joining in on the cheering were part of an afternoon pep rally celebrating three alums competing on the swimming world stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics: Katie Ledecky, Phoebe Bacon and Erin Gemmell.
“It’s so rare for even one student to make it, but the fact that three of them did and some of them by less than a half a second is crazy,” Stone Ridge Athletic Director Andrew Maguire told MoCo360 on Thursday. “So, today, we’re celebrating them.”
Former and current students, family members and friends flooded onto the Stone Ridge campus decked out in red, white and blue for a 2024 Olympics kickoff, with opening ceremonies on Friday night. Friends and family made signs, put on Olympics-themed temporary tattoos or showed their support with giant cutouts of the athletes’ heads.
For Phoebe’s mom, Philippa Bacon, the event was a fun way to celebrate a rare achievement for athletes.
The Paris Olympics will be Gemmell’s first time competing on the world stage, while Pheobe competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Ledecky has won 10 medals in three Olympic games.
Philippa Bacon will be headed to Paris to cheer Phoebe on in person, along with more than 30 family members and friends dressed in red, white and blue Hawaiian shirts.
“I’m really excited to see her on the big stage,” Philippa said. “Olympic trials are pretty big stage, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
For Stone Ridge alumni and students who won’t be able to watch in person, like Jen Margiotta, 51, and Maureen Kelly, 51, who both graduated in 1991, the pep rally was an opportunity to cheer on their fellow Gators while reconnecting with school friends.
“It’s so exciting and almost unbelievable,” Margiotta said. “We’re glad to be able to be part of this moment in history. This doesn’t happen every day.”
Hope Kendrick, 12, and Ella Patil, 12, both seventh graders at Stone Ridge, said telling others that three Olympians came from their school has impressed friends who don’t attend the private Catholic girls school. Hope and Ella, who both play multiple sports, told MoCo360 that they look up to the Olympians.
“It’s super inspiring,” Ella said. “It’s really gonna empower a lot of other athletes here to just try their best to be able to do what [the Olympians] are doing because now they know it’s achievable.”
The three Olympians gave a shout-out to their former school in several videos that played during the pep rally.
“I’m a Stone Ridge girl,” Ledecky said in the video filmed in the Stone Ridge Aquatic Center. “I’ve spent so many hours in this pool, training, competing for the Gators, having so much fun with my teammates and classmates. And I hope that all of you are having that same fun.”
Maguire said the entire community is proud of the three athletes — a pride displayed throughout the loud cheers and signs in pep rally.
“We are just happy to be [a part of] helping them achieve what they’re able to,” Maguire said.
