CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — On the walls of Harvard’s Weld Boathouse here on the banks of the Charles River, among the dozens of photos of women’s crews gone by, is evidence of how long Gevvie Stone has been around the sport of rowing.

Look at the black-and-white team picture of the 1984-85 Radcliffe varsity heavyweights. There, in the back row, is the coach, Lisa Stone. That’s Gevvie’s mom. She’s wearing maternity overalls.

“There I am,” Gevvie Stone said last week, pointing at her mom’s round middle, “in her belly!”

That was about 31 years ago. Of course Stone gravitated to the water. Born to parents who were top American Olympic scullers, she had a feeling she’d end up racing a boat someday. “I had an inkling I’d be good at it,” she told me.

You might say it was meant to be. You cannot say, however, that it has been simple.

To make it to the height of a sport is never easy, even for those athletes wired for greatness. That’s something to think about as teams bound for the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro come together in the next weeks and months.