Abby Peck

Abby Peck attended Skidmore College, graduating in 1978 with an art degree. She rowed briefly at Skidmore but really took up the sport after college while living near Boston. She became a US national team member in 1980 and stayed with them through 1988. Peck competed at the 1984 Olympics in quad sculls, and at the 1988 Olympics in the eight. She rowed at five World Championships (1983-83, 1985-87), winning a silver medal with the eight in 1987. She also competed at the 1986 Goodwill Games, winning silvers in both the quad sculls and the eights.

Peck later returned to school to earn a masters’ degree in exercise and sports science from Smith College. She began to work with breast cancer survivors, teaching them to row, and brought together teams of cancer survivors to row in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge. Peck started PAISBC, pronounced “pays back,” but which stands for “Physical Activity Intervention – Surviving Beyond Cancer,” in which she works with oncology patients at the Northeast Radiation Oncology Center near Boston. Peck still speaks passionately about her rowing career, talking about how much it taught her, and that the journey was more important than any of the medals.