Champion rower Christina Salvi

The granddaughter, daughter and youngest sibling of talented rowers, Christina Salvi is carving out a place for herself in the sport.

The New Trier High School Freshman Girls crew battled choppy waters, fended off fierce competitors and ultimately won a gold medal at the top rowing tournament in the country on May 24 at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s Championship Regatta. The event was hosted on the Cooper River in New Jersey, just a few miles east of Philadelphia.

Christina Salvi, one of a team of eight rowers guided by a coxswain, says that before the final race the team was nervous, but confident. They had won previous tournaments together, including the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Regatta in Michigan just two weeks earlier.

“After seeing how we performed at Midwest I had a gut feeling we’d win at nationals,” Salvi says. “Coach (Allison Elli) said before that it was the most important race we’d had in our entire lives.”

The team got off to a good start and quickly earned the lead.

“You have to be physically strong and also mentally strong,” Salvi says. “When everything is going perfect, everyone is going at the same time and you are all exactly together as if we were parts of a machine.”

Around 4 minutes into the 2-kilometer race it began to look like the team in second place — a crew from Winter Park, Florida – might be making a push to overtake them. But the New Trier girls surged ahead to their fastest pace of the race and finished the course with a time of 5 minutes and 12 seconds, around five seconds ahead of Winter Park.

Next school year, Salvi and her fellow championship rowers will have the opportunity to try out for New Trier’s varsity squads.

“I hope that we all make it, and I know we might not all row together again but at least we’ll all be on the same team,” Salvi says.

And no matter what happens, they’ll always have their shared triumph on Cooper River.

“In that race we were all rowing for each other,” Salvi says. “It was the perfect sendoff for this boat, and I’m never going to forget it.”

Competing at prestigious rowing tournaments is nothing new for the Salvi family.

Silvano Salvi, Christina’s grandfather, competed for the Italian national team in the coxless four, a four-person boat that doesn’t have a coxswain.

Sam Salvi, Christina’s father, was on the first rowing team at Loyola Academy in Wilmette.

John Salvi, Christina’s older brother, was featured in the pages of Fra Noi magazine last year for his exceptional high school and collegiate rowing career. His New Trier team won nationals during his senior year, and he is currently rowing for Stanford. His goal is to earn a seat for Team USA at the 2028 Olympics.

Christina’s older sister, Catherine, will row as a freshman at Columbia University in New York City this fall. The sisters both competed at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America’s Championship Regatta, though Catherine was on the varsity team.

“It was great to have her with me,” Christina said of her sister also being at the New Jersey tournament. “It felt like I wasn’t in such a foreign place.”

Catherine’s team earned third place in their category.

Seeing her siblings find success and enjoyment in rowing is what inspired Christina to pursue the sport as well.

“I saw them grow as people, and they always seemed like they were having the best time when they were with their teams,” Salvi says.

Unlike other sports in which children can learn the basics in gym class or even teach themselves, the barrier to entry in rowing is high. Salvi says she enrolled in rowing camps to learn the fundamentals and found she loved the sport.

“I would ask my siblings about what the proper form was but really, having instruction and support from coaches is where you learn how to row,” Salvi says.

“It’s not common for a family to have a (rowing machine) at home … though of course mine did,” Salvi says with a laugh.

The article above appears in the August 2025 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.