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“track and field”

On Sunday, Spain made soccer history by winning the Euro Cup and its third straight international title. But since no Princetonian (with the exception of Fernando Torres fan-boy Jeff Nunokawa and this lone Press Clubber) gives a damn about soccer, let’s talk Olympics.

Donn Cabral ’12 earned a spot at the Olympics when he took second at the men’s steeplechase finals in Oregon on Thursday. 2016 Olympics hopefuls take note: the key to training is to squeeze a high-altitude tent into your dorm so you can deprive yourself of oxygen. (Apparently, Fire Safety thinks posters on your door are more hazardous than tents.)

Check out this video of Cabral training at Princeton (filmed by James Cole ’12):

Back at Princeton, five alumni rowers—including Caroline Lind ’06, Gevvie Stone ’07, Sara Hendershot ’10, Robin Prendes ’11, and Glenn Ochal ’08—are currently training for the Olympics. Though they’ve graduated, their finances don’t seem that different from that of Princetonians doing summer research or internships. According to USRowing CEO Glen Merry, the athletes earn a stipend of only $800-$1000 a month. Fortunately, due to intense fundraising last week, the team raised more than $7,500.

But it’s not only recent graduates or alumni who possess athletic prowess. Incoming freshman Ashleigh Johnson turned down an almost guaranteed spot on the 2016 Olympic water polo team to pursue her studies. Being an Olympic-bound athlete and a pre-med will be by no means an easy feat, but all the power to her. Plus, she’ll have an epic response to that pretentious kid who casually mentions that he turned down Harvard for Princeton.

Did we miss any Olympic highlights? Tell us in the comments below.

A bit of shuffling over at the helm of The Daily Princetonian: Ameena Schelling ’12 was appointed the new editor-in-chief after Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 resigned for “personal reasons.” Schelling, who formerly served as managing editor, took over as per Prince bylaws, and she’ll hold the position until February 1.

Debenedetti declined to comment, citing the Prince policy that only the editor-in-chief is authorized to speak to the media; Schelling did not respond to requests for comment. In an email to the Prince staff, president of the Prince grad board Richard W. Thaler, Jr. noted that it was a “difficult decision” for Debenedetti, thanked him for his service, and summed it all up as “a painful moment for Gabe, a challenging moment for Ameena, and a hopeful moment for the Prince.”

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This is known as "steeplechase."

Meanwhile, some more literal batons were being passed. While you were trolling Hulu or interning or exploring exotic locales on the Princeton dollar, a handful of your peers were running extremely quickly in Iowa. Donn Cabral ’12 and Ashley Higginson ’11 both notched top-10 finishes at the track and field NCAA Championships in Des Moines, and a total of 12 Tigers earned All-America honors. That includes the members of the 4×400 relay team, who were profiled in a fresh NYT piece a while back.

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