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Ginny Gilder balances in a single scull on Union Bay, outside the University of ’s Conibear Shellhouse

THE GIRL IN THE BOAT NEED TO KNOW STORM CO-OWNER 1/ In 1976, Gilder helped GINNY GILDER STEERS HER put a new twist on peaceful demonstrations as part of MEMOIR ACROSS THE FINISH LINE the infamous Title IX strip By Lisa Wogan protest at Yale. Portrait by Hayley Young 2/ The 56-year-old is now training for the RAMROD (Race Around Mount Rainier in One Day), a 168-mile ultra-marathon cycling event THE FACT THAT SHE WASN’T A WRITER was no more likely to keep Ginny Gilder from penning a in July boasting an elevation memoir than the fact that she wasn’t a rower (or even an athlete) would keep her from making the U.S. gain of 10,000 feet. Olympic rowing team !ve years after !rst stepping into a shell. "e Capitol Hill–based strategic adviser 3/ In April, Gilder and knows how to make things happen. And that “push through screaming pain/asthma/heartbreak” attitude her fellow Seattle Storm pervades Course Correction, which recounts Gilder’s journey from a privileged but troubled childhood in owners opened Force 10 Manhattan to !rst-generation Title IX athlete !ghting for the basic facilities that her male counterparts Performance in Redmond, where anyone can train like took for granted (oh, like showers) to Olympic silver medalist paying it forward. As she tells it, hers was a pro. a mostly single-minded pursuit until a serious loss pushed her from an “abrasive, obnoxious and brash” soloist to someone focused on “generating possibility” for others—from starting Washington Works, a 4/ Gilder talks with KUOW-FM’s Marcie Sillman nonpro!t aimed at helping women on welfare land livable wage jobs to buying (and keeping local) the (a fellow rower) on May 5 at Seattle Storm in 2008. Gilder’s memoir is sure to be compared to that other local book about Olympic Town Hall and with The Boys crew that’s been dominating the best-seller list for a year now (Daniel James Brown’s !e Boys in the in the Boat author Daniel Boat James Brown on May 23 at ). But whereas Brown’s recounting of the crew team’s victory over the Elliott Bay Book Company. Nazis at the 1936 Berlin games plays epic, Gilder’s tale is intimate. Her darkest demons are internal, and her greatest rewards—living openly with her wife and blended family—deeply personal.

42 SEATTLEMAG.COM!MAY 2015