PARIS — Peter Chatain had all the qualifications for the job.
A master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. Deft coding skills. A deep appreciation for artificial intelligence ethics.
Chatain thought he’d be a great fit for the machine learning engineer position at Ello, a San Francisco-based startup that produces an AI-powered reading app that listens and engages with children as they read out loud from books. He had proved as much during an internship there in 2022.
There was just one thing, the Winnetka native told his prospective employers:
He hoped to make the U.S. Olympic rowing team in 2024, so he would need some flexibility in his schedule.
Catalin Moreno Voss, Ello’s co-founder and chief technology officer, had heard a lot of interesting stories and codicils from job applicants in his career. But someone asserting their intention of becoming an Olympian was a first.
Conventional wisdom told Voss to take a pass. Given the demands of startups, it didn’t make sense — for the company or for Chatain — to hire someone who planned to moonlight as a world-class athlete.
“I generally think those setups are a terrible idea,” Voss said. “The general startup rule of thumb is you shouldn’t have … people working part time. It’s just so much blood, sweat and tears that you can’t do it.”
Taking on a high-intensity job could have been a risk for Chatain as well. The majority of rowers on the U.S. Olympic team list “athlete” as their only occupation on their official biographies, suggesting that making it to Paris had been a full-time gig in recent years.
Chatain, however, had interned with Ello while working on his master’s degree and he had shown the bosses he could juggle both roles. Voss offered him the position last year based on his prior work, taking a chance on the U.S. rower’s unwavering belief that he could handle his job and still train hard enough to compete at the 2024 Games.
Chatain, 24, proved both his professional and athletic goals are possible earlier this week when the U.S. men’s eight squad rowed its way into the Olympic finals. The boat finished first in its heat and posted the fastest time overall Monday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, guaranteeing the crew a spot in Saturday’s medal race.
“We pretty much executed our plan,” Chatain said after the heat. “We’ll just take the time before the finals to make sure we keep pushing and keep improving.”
It’s the first Olympics for Chatain, who began rowing at his parents’ suggestion as a teenager growing up outside Chicago. He joined the New Trier High School rowing team his freshman year, then went on to break the school record in the 2000 meters and captain the rowing team as a senior.
One of the country’s most respected high school programs, New Trier rowing produced two Olympians for the U.S. team for the Paris Games.
Grace Joyce, 26, also made the U.S. rowing team in the four-woman skull event. After failing to qualify for the medal race, Joyce’s crew participated in the consolation round Wednesday and finished ninth overall.
Heavily recruited out of high school, Chatain chose to compete at Stanford University, where he majored in mathematics and was the Pac-12 Rowing Athlete of the Year in 2021. His success in NCAA rowing made the Olympics a possibility, so he moved after graduation into the Oakland-based California Rowing Club, a facility that helps elite athletes with the transition from their university teams to the national program.
Though he hoped to make the 2024 Olympic team, he knew it would only be a temporary job even if he succeeded. And Chatain — the former vice president of Stanford’s Quantum Computing Club — had other passions. He wanted to explore them, too.
In the summer of 2022, Chatain took an internship at Ello, where its creation of an AI-driven app to help children improve their reading skills complemented his interest in safe and responsible machine learning. He threw himself into the job, though he still trained in the mornings and evenings. He also continued to get physical therapy for his back, which had been causing him severe pain for nearly two years.
“I was prioritizing Ello over rowing at that time because I didn’t know if I was going to continue rowing,” he said. “If I couldn’t fix my back, it would have meant the end of my rowing career, so I wanted to be prepared for whatever came next.”
The back pain eased considerably that summer, leaving Chatain to fully focus on making the Olympic team. But when a position came open at Ello in September 2023, he reassessed his priorities.
He wanted to be an Olympian, yes. But he also wanted a career in which he used machine learning to help people.
Mike Teti — his coach at the California Rowing Club and the only U.S. men’s coach to win medals in four consecutive Olympic Games — told him it was possible to have both. In fact, Teti thought it might be better for Chatain if he had both gigs.
“Teti encourages every person to get a job while you’re also rowing because it helps you be a holistic athlete,” Chatain said. “If you have a bad day rowing or the boat’s not going well, it’s going to weigh down your entire mood if it’s the only thing you’re thinking about. You have to have things to get your mind off it.”
Chatain and Voss worked out a deal: He could take a part-time position until after the Olympics, with a work schedule that allowed for training and team travel.
In his role at Ello, Chatain’s responsibilities include making sure the app works well on all types of devices. It’s critical, he said, that the application be compatible with older phones and tablets so children, regardless of their parents’ income, have access to the reading resource.
“This is a job that hits all my bullet points,” Chatain said. “I get to work on an interesting problem with AI. I get to do actual technical work and I get to have a positive impact. AI has such a potential for good. I am excited to be at a place to make that happen.”
Before Chatain took a leave of absence for the Games, he began his days rowing from 6:30 to 9 a.m. in Oakland. He then took the train to San Francisco, spent the day at work, left at 5 p.m. and headed back to the rowing club for a weightlifting session and 80 minutes or so on the ergometer.
He would grab a quick dinner after training and try to be asleep by 9 p.m.
“He operates on another level in his time management,” Voss said. “It’s the sort of thing that I think you acquire as an extremely disciplined athlete who has spent their entire life balancing their sport, their academics and their loved ones. This is what his life is like and it’s down to the millisecond.”
While Chatain, who is set to return to work full time in August, was honest with his bosses about how much time his Olympic ambitions would require, there was one thing his resume did not mention: how much he eats.
Elite-level rowers burn thousands of calories in a single training session, meaning the 6-foot-6 Chatain has to refuel constantly to maintain his strength and energy. Voss said Chatain tears through the office’s Costco snack supply, eating two cups of noodles every morning and grazing on other stuff more throughout the day.
His co-workers soon learned to leave any extra food on Chatain’s desk because it was guaranteed to be eaten. The office snack bills are slightly bigger than the company expected, but Voss said he’s happy to contribute to the cause.
“We didn’t forecast it that way,” Voss said, laughing. “But it’s OK. It’s our gift to the national team.”
After Chatain arrived in Paris, Voss messaged him and asked if he could attend a quick staff meeting. Chatain joined the video call from the athletes village to find a celebration taking place in his honor. His co-workers had all changed their backgrounds to make it look like they were in Paris and they presented him with a book that will be used on the Ello app called “Peter’s Big Race.”
In the book written by his co-worker Sarah Tenney, an Olympian named Peter — an animated version of Chatain created by AI — works hard to make the his country’s team and win a medal. Borrowing heavily from Chatain’s biography, the animated Peter is treated by physical therapists, played hockey as a kid and works at Ello.
“Peter has always loved sports, but he takes school seriously, too,” the book says. “He loves computers and helps to make the Read with Ello app better using everything he’s learned in school.”
Chatain said he was touched by the book, which he immediately shared with his parents and the U.S. rowing team’s physical therapists. They all have cameos in the book.
“It’s just amazing to have a company that’s super excited about what I’m doing at the Olympics and how much work I’ve put in,” he said. “I know I’m very lucky.”
The book doesn’t reveal how Peter’s big race ends.
Chatain and his teammates have a chance to write that epilogue Saturday.
