They’d call it the greatest home-field advantage in sports … if Genevra Stone performed on a field.
Instead, the water is what Stone calls home, the Charles River just a skipping-stone from where she was raised in Cambridge, the daughter of an accomplished rowing couple.
In 1977, eight years before “Gevvie” was born, her parents Gregg and Lisa won both the men’s and women’s championship singles at the Head of the Charles.
“I remember going as a little kid, being on the Harvard dock and screaming,” Stone said.
Now, it’s Gevvie’s turn to make the big splash. In front of her family and friends over the weekend, Stone, 26, won the Head of the Charles women’s championship singles for the second straight year and third time in the past four.
But that was just a starting point. Stone’s ultimate dream — the one that’s led her to put off medical school — is rowing in the 2012 London Olympics. Stone came close to qualifying in September during the world championships in Bled, Slovenia, but fell just short.
That leaves her to try again next spring to make the final cut. “That’s the goal,” Stone said.
