The recipient of USRowing's 2024 Medal of Honor, Holly Metcalf is in her 18th season as head coach for the MIT openweight women in 2024-25. The 2017 Patriot League Coach of the Year, Metcalf has transformed the program into a team that is competitive within the Eastern Sprints, as well as in the Patriot League, where the Engineers’ varsity 8 squad has regularly gained the Grand Final. Additionally, in every year under Metcalf the team has earned Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA for its exceptional academic performance.
Metcalf received the Medal of Honor, awarded to a member of the rowing community in the U.S. who has rendered conspicuous service to or accomplished extraordinary feats in rowing, in April 2025. It is the highest honor USRowing can bestow.
In 2023-24, powered by a runner-up finish by the Second Varsity 8+ and bronze-medal performances by the Varsity 8+ and Varsity 4+, MIT finished third overall at the Patriot League Championship. This was the second time in program history the Engineers placed third and the first since 2012. Tech also produced its highest point total since joining the league.
In the 2022-23 season, the Engineers finished third in the Varsity 8 competition at the Patriot League Championship as the Engineers placed fifth overall as a team. In addition, the Varsity 8 earned gold at the New England Championship at Lake Quinsigamond, along with bronze medals by the Varsity 4.
Metcalf was a six-time member of the U.S. National Team and won five World Championship and Olympic medals, including a Gold Medal at the 1984 Olympics in the women’s eight. She has coached extensively at the club, college, and national team levels. Metcalf also directed the Silver Medal winning crew at the 1990 World Championships. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she was selected as a member of that school’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.
More recently, Metcalf used rowing to enrich the lives of hundreds of women and girls through a variety of non-profit programs. In 1994, she founded the Row As One Institute, which provides masters women with top-level coaching. She extended this concept to inner-city girls in 1996 with her G-ROW program in Watertown, Massachusetts. Six years later Metcalf established WeCanRow, a wellness and rehabilitation organization for female cancer survivors, which recently evolved into WeCanRow National.
Over the years Metcalf has accrued numerous awards and honors, including:
- 2024 - USRowing Medal of Honor
- 2017 - Patriot League Coach of the Year
- 2008 - USRowing Woman of the Year (with Olympic teammates)
- 2004 - RYKÄ First Women of Fitness Award
- 1999 - YWCA Outstanding Woman
- 1999 - New England Women's Leadership Award
- 1999 - USRowing Woman of the Year (with Ernestine Bayer)
- 1999 - New England Women's Sports Hall of Fame
- 1998 - New England Hero Award
- 1998 - Girl Scouts of America Leading Woman
- 1997 - Boston Magazine's Top 50 Most Intriguing Women
- 1993 - Peter F. Drucker Award, Project Teamwork
- 1990 - World Championships Silver Medal (coach)
- 1987 - World Championships Silver Medal
- 1984 - USRowing Hall of Fame
- 1984 - Maine Hall of Fame
- 1984 - Olympic Gold Medal
- 1983 - World Championships Silver Medal
- 1982 - World Championships Silver Medal
- 1981 - World Championships Bronze Medal
