HANOVER — When the Summer Olympic games officially open Friday in Paris, Dartmouth will be well-represented by athletes in the sports of rowing and rugby, including rower Billy Bender of Norwich, a Hanover High School graduate.

Bender, a member of Dartmouth’s Class of 2024, earned a spot on the team in pairs rowing with Oliver Bub, a member of Dartmouth’s Class of 2020. Molly Reckford, from the Class of 2015, is also a rower and will compete in women’s lightweight double sculls with Michelle Sechser.

Ariana Ramsey, from the Class of 2023, will represent the U.S. on the women’s rugby team, and Madison Hughes, a 2017 graduate, is on the men’s rugby team after scoring the third-most points, 32, among all players in Tokyo, where the team finished sixth.

This is Reckford’s second Olympics. Three years ago in Tokyo, she just missed a podium finish with fourth place in the lightweight double sculls.

“It is a really cool moment for our whole boathouse (at Dartmouth) to have representatives on both the men’s and women’s teams,” said Dartmouth women’s rowing coach John Graves, who was an assistant coach for the men during Bender’s time on the team.

Graves said a medal is not out of the question for the rowers from Dartmouth, but they have to perform at their best level.

“Molly and Michelle have been on the podium (top three finishers) in every international competition (the last four years), so definitely they are in contention for a medal,” Graves said Thursday in a phone interview. “I think Molly feels there is some unfinished business, and our whole team is rooting for her.”

While he did not coach Reckford, Graves said he was on the national team with her and has followed her rise in the sport.

“We want to really celebrate what she has been doing, which is really amazing,” he said.

Bender and Bub, though not medal favorites, are not far off, Graves said, noting that Bender was on a heavyweight pairs team that finished fifth at the World Championships last year. The duo finished first at the Olympic trials to earn a spot on the team.

“If they manage the regatta well, they definitely have the speed to challenge for a medal,” Graves said. “Both crews (from Dartmouth) have the speed (to medal).”

Each rower has two paddles in sculls, while Bender and Bub will have one each on either side of the boat in their discipline. All rowing events on the man-made course are 2,000 meters.

World championships, most say, are the true test of a sport’s best athletes but the Olympic spotlight burns much brighter with a worldwide audience.

“All the crews are capable of high speeds and it comes down to who gets it on the day,” Graves said.

Meanwhile on land, this is the second appearance on the U.S. women’s sevens rugby team for Ramsey, 24.

U.S. women’s coach Emilie Bydwell said in an email from Paris that the team has had excellent practice sessions as it eyes a gold medal.

“We’ve been able to find creative ways to push the envelope and stress the players to drive the adaptation and improvements we know we need to make to genuinely go for gold,” Bydwell said. “All the way through our base camp in Tours, France, we continued to build through high intensity sessions.”

Ramsey played three years ago in Tokyo but had her tournament cut short by a knee injury.

Hughes, 31, took a break from the game after the last Olympics to work on an MBA from Stanford, then rejoined the men’s rugby sevens team last year. There are 12 teams competing in Paris. Play began Wednesday and concludes on Tuesday.

The U.S. tied France, 12-12, and was routed by two-time gold medalist Fiji, 38-12, on Wednesday but bounced back on Thursday with a 33-17 defeat of Uruguay to make the quarterfinals.

Hughes has been one of the top performers for the U.S. He was ranked fourth among U.S. players in points scored in 2023-24 in international competition.

Elle Purrier St. Pierre, 29, a farmer from Montgomery, Vt., and U.S. record holder in the indoor mile and two mile, will compete in the 1,500-meter race, and Ilona Maher, of Burlington, also is a rugby team member.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.