"What is something that people don’t appreciate or don’t know about rowing that goes unsung?"

"Rowing is the most misunderstood sport! A lot of people think of a rowboat, where you just use your arms. But we use our legs a lot. So people will say, “You must have really strong arms.” It’s a lot of core and legs. It’s also a really huge team sport. It’s fun to be the fastest person on the team, but if the rest of the people on your boat aren’t that fast, you’re not going to go anywhere. Inter-squad competition is important because you have to be able to get better, but also help people get better, because it is a team thing."

               "Have you guys become a kind of family?"

"If I wasn’t on the rowing team, I probably wouldn’t have met 90% of the girls on it now. There are a lot of different personalities and majors, so everybody brings something different. I get to spend twenty hours a week with fifty of my closest friends. With so many girls, there is inevitably drama, but we’re pretty unique in how we handle it. If there is any drama, it’s kept between who needs to be involved to iron it out. If you have a problem, you go to the seniors and you figure it out and then you move on."

Fun fact: “I rowed in Bulgaria. The summer before freshman year, I was on the Junior National team. We went to Bulgaria and raced at Worlds. We came in 2^nd.

Vocabulary for the day: “erg” and “coxswain”. Look ‘em up!