At 19 years of age, Nevin Harrison is an Olympic gold medalist.

With her win Thursday, Harrison became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the single 200-meter canoe sprint. The event was recently added to the Olympics in an effort to advance gender equity.

“It’s exciting to be part of history, to see how awesome we all were,” Harrison said. “I knew it was going to be the hardest race of my life. It’s the Olympics, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Harrison’s gold is the first canoe medal of any kind for the United States since 1964.

Laurence Vincent Lapointe of Canada, the defending world champion who lobbied hard to have the sport included in the Olympics, earned silver.