From June 11 through June 13, Drexel is hosting college and school-wide ceremonies to celebrate the graduating Class of 2025. June 12th is the biggest of these ceremonies, as Drexel recognizes and celebrates the many accomplishments of this graduating class at Citizens Bank Park. One of Drexel’s most notable alumni is set to be the University-wide Commencement keynote speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony. Justin Best is a 2019 LeBow College of Business graduate, an investment banker and a two-time Olympian in the sport of rowing.
A Kennett Square, PA native, Best has famously said that he first found the sport of rowing through the 2010 movie The Social Network, after his parents noticed that he had a similar body type to the former Olympic rowers, the Winklevoss twins. Soon after, Best signed up for rowing camp, and the sport stuck.
Prior to Drexel, Best attended Unionville High School, where he rowed for four years. During his time there, he competed for the 2015 USA Junior National Team at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he won silver in the men’s eight. Additionally, Best rowed for the 2014 USA Junior National Team at the CanAmMex Regatta in Canada, winning gold in the men’s eight.
Best attended Drexel University between 2015 – 2019. In addition to majoring in business and engineering, Best also rowed all four years for the Drexel men’s rowing team. In his first season, Best helped the varsity eight to the boat’s first ever win at the Henley Royal Regatta. He also was a member of the Drexel team that won their fourth consecutive overall team title at the Dad Vail Regatta. Additionally, he helped Drexel’s varsity eight to the program’s highest national ranking in the USRowing weekly poll, number 14. His first season continued to be successful, as he also was a member of the varsity eight that won the Dr. Thomas Kerr Cup for the sixth year in a row, at the 50th annual Drexel-hosted Kerr Cup. The freshman also helped the team to their sixth straight Bergen Cup victory, taking home a second-place finish with the varsity eight at the Navy Day Regatta.
In his 2016-2017 season, as the six-seat in the varsity eight, Best helped Drexel obtain their fifth consecutive overall Dad Vail Regatta title, and helped lead the boat to its second ever gold medal. For the second year, he helped the varsity eight win the Dr. Thomas Kerr Cup victory at the 51st annual Kerr Cup Regatta, for the seventh time in a row. The team also took second place with the varsity eight at the Bergen Cup that season, as well as finishing in third place twice with the varsity eight at the George Washington Invitational. Best sat six-seat in the varsity eight A’s second-place finish at the Frostbite Regatta, which concluded the fall season, and helped row to a winning time of 13:43 in the varsity four B at the Rutgers Fall Classic.
From 2017-2018, Best helped the Dragons to their sixth consecutive overall title at the Dad Vail Regatta. He and the varsity eight boat placed second at the 36th Memorial Murphy Cup Regatta, and placed sixth with the varsity eighth in the Dr. Thomas Kerr Cup for their 52nd Regatta. At that season’s Bergen Cup on the Schuylkill River, the second varsity eight took first. Additionally, the varsity eight finished first and second at the George Washington Invitational on the Potomac River. That fall season, they started off strong with a victory in the varsity eight at the Rumson Boat Race.
Best made sure his last season at Drexel would not be one to forget. In his 2018-2019 season, Best helped the varsity eight place 21st overall in the IRA National Championships. He also helped the Dragons claim the men’s point title and second-place overall points finish at the Dad Vail Regatta. In the same regatta, Best sat in the three seat of the varsity eight, as he placed second in the final finish. In his final season, he beat schools such as Columbia, Delaware, Georgetown, UC San Diego, Gonzaga and the University of San Diego across different invitationals. Additionally, he also won in the varsity eight boat at the Murphy Cup Regatta on the Cooper River.
In 2020, Best qualified to compete in the men’s eight event in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The boat came in fourth place, just shy of medaling.
However, this was not the end for Best and the Olympics. At the 2024 Summer Olympics hosted in Paris, France, the USA team, consisting of Liam Corrigan, Michael Grady, Nick Mead and Best, held off the New Zealand crew in rowing’s 2,000-meter men’s four final. It was a close call, as New Zealand, with 600 meters to go, was catching up to the U.S. team. Yet, with a last minute command from rower Corrigan, the U.S. crew crossed the finish line in 5:49.03, holding off New Zealand by 0.85 of a second – and taking home gold. Great Britain was 3.39 seconds behind the U.S., taking the bronze medal. As all these rowers competed in the 2020 Olympic Games (Corrigan, Mead and Best in the men’s eight and Grady in the men’s four that took home fifth place), they knew they did not want to go home empty-handed again.
This was the first gold medal for the United States in this event since the 1960 Olympics in Rome, and the first medal since 2012. Furthermore, Best is the first Dragon in school history to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. The last medal won at the Olympics by a Drexel athlete was in 1972, when Charles Horter – a member of Drexel’s Athletics Hall of Fame – won a bronze medal in sailing at the Games in Munich, Germany.
Best has represented Drexel well as a student and an athlete during his time attending the university. On a larger scale, he has represented the blue and yellow colors, as well as the USA colors, to the world. Therefore, it is no surprise that he was chosen as this year’s Commencement keynote speaker at the 2025 graduation ceremony. As the ceremony approaches, we can look forward to the stories, as well as advice, he will leave with the graduating Class of 2025.