CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Coming off one of the best department-wide athletics seasons in school history, Erin McDermott, The John D. Nichols '53 Family Director of Athletics, begins her sixth year at the helm of Harvard Athletics with the Crimson set for a highly anticipated 2025-26 academic year.
 
McDermott has navigated the Crimson through several challenges during her tenure in Cambridge, but Harvard has continued to perform at the highest levels, including last year, which started with an unprecedented performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics and ended with three team national championships.
 
In between the Crimson winning a school-record 13 Olympic medals and the Harvard Men's Lightweight Rowing team winning the national championship in June, the Crimson boasted 10 conference champions, two additional team national titles (women's rugby, coed sailing), and two individual national champions (men's cross country's Graham Blanks, women's sailing's Sophia Montgomery). The department-wide success led Harvard to a No. 34 finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup, which marked the second-best showing in program history, behind only last year's No. 29 performance.
 
As Harvard enters 2025-26, it does so with a forward-looking focus, having launched the One Crimson NIL Exchange last season and with improved facilities across its athletics campus, including more on the horizon.
 
At Harvard, student-athletes have the power to choose from countless possibilities with opportunities to shape an unparalleled experience athletically, in the classroom and in their everyday lives.
 
With the 2025-26 academic year squarely on the horizon, the Crimson has a blank canvas on which to write the next exciting chapter in its athletics history.