Rower John Salvi

An award-winning rower in high school, John Salvi overcame brain cancer and returned to his sport, stronger than ever.

Rower John Salvi won nationals as a high school senior and came in 5th place at the U-19 World Championships last year.

Impressive in their own right, Salvi’s accomplishments are even more significant in light of the fact that he battled brain cancer while in high school. He’s been in remission since October 2022.

“The sport is massively physically intense and mentally exhausting, which makes success in the sport that much more fulfilling,” says the 19-year-old, now a sophomore studying engineering at Stanford University.

Salvi comes from a line of accomplished rowers, including his grandfather Silvano Salvi, a “tremendous athlete” who competed in the Italian national team in the coxless four, he says. “In his days in the navy, he would swim under the hulls of ships he was working on and tie up his friends’ fishing lines. He was able to swim the length of a 25-yard pool and back underwater.”

His father, Sam Salvi, was on the first rowing team at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. “He used the sport as a way to stay fit for his football offseason,” his son says.

Growing up, Salvi played soccer and ran cross-country but wasn’t competitive in either sport. He got into rowing after an off-the-cuff comment from his father, who said he should play a sport in high school to be less of a couch potato.

“He explicitly told me that I did not have to join the team but needed to complete the entire tryout to see if I would like it,” he says. “This turned out to be the best idea ever, because I met friends and started high school with a foot in the door.”

Salvi was diagnosed with a tumor called germinoma in May 2021, at the end of his sophomore year in high school, after experiencing double vision and headaches so severe he’d throw up. He underwent 12 weeks of chemotherapy and three surgeries, and went back to school once healed from those, he says.

“It was hard and annoying because everything smelled wrong and I couldn’t go near the lunchroom,” he says. “I felt like all the life was drained out of me, but I had work to do, so I kept rowing and attending school.”

He then underwent two months of radiation, getting up at 5 a.m. to make the appointments before school, all the while continuing to row. “I wanted to be strong and get through to the other side of my condition,” he says, adding he wanted to be an example for his younger siblings: Catherine, 17, also a rower who has set high-school records; Christina, 15; and Matthew, 11.

“I also was just inspired by the thought of coming out on the other side of my issue stronger than I went in, and was desperate to prove I could do so,” Salvi adds. “I never felt like there was a wasted moment or that I was dying, because I had my team and my community there to support me and they gave me a place to prove myself.”

It takes dedication and goal-setting to be successful at rowing, because talent alone typically doesn’t take one very far, he says. While in school, Salvi practices about 24 hours per week, including workouts on the water in the morning, when there is less wind, and on a gym rowing machine in the afternoon.

Next, Salvi would love to win the IRA (Intercollegiate Rowing Association) national championship for Stanford.

“It would be the most outstanding achievement of my rowing life so far,” he says. “There are large odds stacked against me and the team. In fact, I guarantee no one sees it for us. This just makes the juice worth the squeeze, though, to me.”

The above appears in the October 2024 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.