Mary O'Connor

Mary I. O’Connor (born circa 1959) was a 1980 U.S. Olympic team rower and an orthopedic surgeon, researcher, and professor with the Mayo Clinic and Yale School of Medicine. She was also a member of the 1976 Yale women's rowing team that protested inequalities, starting the Title IX movement to fight sexual discrimination in college athletics.

Early life O’Connor was born and raised in New Castle, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Yale in 1979 with a degree in biochemistry. She then attended the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine).

Rowing O'Connor did not participate in sports in high school because there were no teams for girls. This protest was noted by newspapers around the world, including The New York Times. (Previously, after practice the men showered, but there was no bathroom available for the women's crew team. Women had to wait on the bus before they could return to campus. ) This protest was chronicled in the 1999 documentary A Hero For Daisy.

The Yale's women's rowing team went on to win the Eastern Sprints in 1977 and 1979, and the National Championship in 1979. O'Connor says, "We felt used and that we were just political pawns."

In 1991, O'Connor became a professor of orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, becoming the chair of the department of orthopedic surgery in 2005.

In 2015, O'Connor became the first director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Care at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health System. In February 2021, she co-founded and became the chief medical officer of Vori Health, a musculoskeletal medical startup. She is also a professor emerita of orthopedic surgery with the Mayo Clinic.

Awards and honors Congressional Gold Medal as a 1980 Olympian Distinguished Clinician at Mayo Clinic The Corinne Farrell Award from the International Skeletal Society in 2009 Health Care Hero by the Jacksonville Business Journal in 2011 Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Gateway Council in 2015

Select publications O'Connor, Mary I. Limited Incisions for Total Hip Arthroplasty (Monograph Series). American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2007. Instructional Course. Azar, Frederick M. Azar and O'Connor, Mary I., editors. Instructional Course Lectures American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, vol 58, 2009. O'Connor, Mary I. and Haq, Kanwal L. Taking Care of You: The Empowered Woman’s Guide to Better Health. Mayo Clinic Press, 2022.

Personal life O'Connor is married and has two daughters and a son who all row.