The Oxbridge Olympians

This year twelve Olympians have set their sights on winning the 2022 Oxford Cambridge Boat Race. New Zealand’s Grace Prendergast and Ruby Tew join Cambridge-born Olympian and two-time Boat Race winner Imogen Grant at CUBC. Gabrielle Smith joins the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club, after she and her partner Jessica Sevick ended Canada’s 25-year wait by reaching the women’s double A-Final at Tokyo 2020. Two former Rio 2016 lightweights, Switzerland’s Olympic champion Simon Schürch and New Zealand James Hunter are trialling for the CUBC men. As are Great Britain’s Olympic bronze medallists Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith who will likely race against their former men’s eight teammate Charlie Elwes – should all three make their blue boats. Elwes joins Tokyo 2020 US men’s eight stroke Liam Corrigan. Attempting to master one oar not two are Oxford Olympians Roman Röösli and Barnabé Delarze of the Swiss men’s double who came fifth at Tokyo 2020 and Angus Groom of the silver-medal-winning British men’s quad.

As they prepare for the ultimate Tdeway test, Row360 catches four of the newly matriculated Olympians; Gabrielle Smith, Tom George, Barnabé Delarze, and Ruby Tew.

Barnabé Delarze

Club: OUBC

Olympic Experience: SUI M2x, 5th place

College: Christ Church

Course: MBA

Tokyo 2020 was tough to take because fifth place was a real disappointment. More often than not, Roman and I (SUI M2x) had medalled during the cycle and going into Tokyo we felt we had good speed and had timed our peak well. Our first race was good and fast, but our semi-final wasn’t. Semi-finals are nerve wracking because you have everything to lose. It wasn’t a great race, but we thought, oh we were nervous and we’re going to row better in the final. But we didn’t, and that’s hard to digest. We were never in the race. There was no reason for us to be nine seconds down on the French as we’ve beaten them before; we’d beaten all those crews before. It makes it worse because it doesn’t feel like we gave it our all; I think if we’d been in the mix, it would be easier to digest the result. I don’t know why it was so bad, it was probably a multitude of little things that added up. It was just one of those days and it didn’t click. It was the Olympic final – we had to go that extra one or two percent but when we tried to do that we drifted apart; you can’t do that in an Olympic final.

Thankfully I haven’t had post-Olympic blues. Of course, I was sad. I spent time on my own in the mountains dealing with the disappointment. Mountains are never far from you in Switzerland. I live in Lausanne on Lake Geneva and my family has a flat in the mountains. I’m fortunate that I can escape there every so often. Since then, things have been moving fast and that’s good. Oxford has been a huge and exciting change of environment.

Lining up Oxford helped. I couldn’t see myself going straight back into the Swiss team. Even if we’d done well at the Olympics, I needed a break from the system because I’d been there for almost ten years. Given that we messed up it was even more important for me to have something else – and Oxford was it. I arrived at Oxford about six weeks after Tokyo and it gave me something to look forward to; winning the Boat Race is an exciting new goal.

I’ve only one oar to think about now -that’s easier, right? All the scullers* are on stroke side. I felt like a beginner for the first few weeks of sweeping. From inside the boat it felt rubbish but actually the bladework was alright. To get 100% out of myself I need to be more relaxed and that’s coming. It has been over two months and, I don’t know about Roman, but for me at least, it is starting to feel better. I know what a fast boat feels like, and that’s the same whether sweeping or sculling. The rotation at the catch is the hardest thing but it is just a matter of time – you just have to row and after few months you’ve got it. It’s fun to have a change after ten years of the same stuff.

I wouldn’t say I’m the crew joker, that’s Dave Ambler – he’s funny. It is a special year this year because OUBC has five Olympians, who were all Tokyo 2020 A-Finalists. I’m one of the oldest guys so that makes a change. There’s a lot of experience and even the non-Olympians are U23 world champions; everyone knows how to move a boat. I try to bring my experience in an uplifting way to the things around the actual rowing. I’m still learning to sweep so I’m not leading the technical side. I want to keep the guys accountable but in a chilled way because we are here to have fun. I’m one of the physically stronger guys so I try to push on that too.

Trial Eights won’t be my first time on the Tideway. In 2012, after high school before military service, I lived in London for two months and rowed at Imperial College Boat Club. That’s the start of my UK story, it’s why I wanted to study in the UK. I loved it; it was a great atmosphere. I’ve returned five times to race the Fours Head. So, I know the Tideway well enough. Everyone tells me Trial Eights is a fun week and I’m looking forward to it. It’s an internal race between matched eights and even though it is not seat racing the coaches will be taking a close look. It is a good rehearsal for the Boat Race with the side-by-side direct opposition and the potential for clashing. And the dinner afterwards will be fun. I’m also looking forward to the fixtures, probably more so than Trial Eights.

“We were never in the race. There was no reason for us to be nine seconds down on the French as we’ve beaten them before; we’d beaten all those crews before.”

The MBA is intense. You have to be smart and pick your battles because it’s impossible to cover everything. Combining it with Boat Race training is very intense. I’m missing classes but, fortunately, I can catch up via online recordings. It took a while to cope with all the academic material. Another big part of the MBA is the networking opportunities, there are people from 70 different countries on my course, all with different experiences and networks. It is important that I spend time with those people. I am a lot busier here than I was at home. There’s a lot to do but I like it.

Paris 2024 is an option. After Tokyo I feel like I have unfinished business (with the Olympics) but, to be honest I haven’t decided what my future looks like. And I don’t know who is going to be back at the Swiss training centre, but I will be training for the whole year to leave all my options open. I still like rowing, but we will see, there will be a lot of different opportunities after completing the MBA. I will be in a better position to decide after the summer season. If racing goes well then yes – it is interesting, but if it doesn’t work out then I will have to reconsider what I’m doing.

Ian Wright is back. When he last coached in Switzerland, things didn’t work out so well between Ian and the Rio 2016 quad that I was a part of. It’s been five years and we have both grown and learned a lot since then; I believe we have a lot of mutual respect. Ian and I had a long chat about a month before he accepted the head coach position. I don’t know how it is going to play out this time. With Roman and I sweeping at Oxford, we might try and do a four for the 2022 world championships. Andrin Gulich, who stroked the Swiss four at Tokyo, is finishing his degree at Yale, so it makes sense for him too as he will not be in Switzerland for the whole year. His Tokyo crewmate Joël Schürch could be the fourth guy or we have another Swiss athlete in the US at the moment. And perhaps one of the younger guys back home progresses this winter. I’ll have to make sure I make it into the boat! My degree finishes late in the summer so I’m only available for a few weeks, it should be an interesting project. It is a boat class that Ian has an amazing track record in.

“I felt like a beginner for the first few weeks of sweeping. From inside the boat it felt rubbish but actually the bladework was alright.”

*OUBC’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic sculling recruits include Angus Groom of Great Britain’s Olympic silver medal winning quad, and Roman Röösli and Barnabé Delarze of the Swiss men’s double.

Tom George

Club: CUBC

Olympic Experience: Tokyo 2020 GBR M8+, Bronze

College: Peterhouse

Course: MPhil Real Estate Finance

Breaking 5:40 felt like a sporting nirvana. The first time I did it I was in my parent’s shed. It was a strange turn of events that led to the record – during the outbreak of Covid the national team got called in after our Olympic trials and were told to go home and train there for two weeks. A few days later it was announced that the Olympics wasn’t going to happen that year, and two weeks turned into six months. I’d moved back in with my parents and I was training in their shed by myself. It was weird, and raw – just me and a lawn mower. I went under 5:40 again after we got back to Caversham sometime in March before Tokyo 2020+1, that time I went 5:39.2. It was a special occasion to do it in front of all the coaches and athletes. It’s important to keep pushing the boundaries, I want to see if I can get down to 38 or 37 and use that erg asset on the water in a boat. I’ve got a 5km erg test coming up. I don’t know how it’ll go as I had surgery since Tokyo, and I’ve also had a couple of horrible colds since arriving on campus. My PB is under 15. Moe’s [Sbihi] record is 14:54 and is a target for the future. I’ll have a good crack, but we’ll see. I’d love to get on the top of the Goldie erg leader board – that’s 15:09.

Ollie (Wynne-Griffith) and I both started together at Radley about ten years ago. Looking back on it, it’s unbelievable to think that we’re both still going; to be right at the top of the sport together is pretty unreal. We lived together in Henley-on-Thames during the Tokyo Olympiad and now we’re living together in Cambridge; he’s not a bad housemate. In fact, he’s a phenomenal chef and gets quite adventurous in the kitchen, he really gets into it.

Paris 2024 is in my sights but I’m not giving too much thought to it right now. There’s a lot to do before Paris. I want to get my degree, do the Boat Race, and reintegrate back into the GB team. If you get too focused on the final goal, you’ll probably underperform on the way there – it’s important to be present with the current aim. But of course, I want to go to an Olympics where my family and friends are there with me – and I want to win it and restore British Rowing’s record and get us back on track – that would be huge. I know everyone at Caversham is training hard right now and so I’ve got to train hard too because the train doesn’t stop, ever.

Racing Fours Head was a positive start to the season. We wanted to win our division, but we didn’t quite manage it. There were a few things that we took from that race and worked on in training afterwards. We’ve made tangible changes and good progress. The winning crew was from Oxford Brookes and had four squad athletes onboard so to be that close to the British guys early in the season is no bad thing.

My time at Princeton was fun and I’m enjoying being back in education. I love the academic life at Cambridge – I’m forever charging around between classes and training. And if there is someone giving a talk in the evening, I’ll try my best to squeeze that in too. Having those kinds of opportunities is at the heart of Cambridge life. It is a lot of fun but absolutely manic.

I’m loving the chance to look to the future. I’m studying real estate finance – obviously at some point my rowing career will come to an end and this is a great way to keep rowing and training while looking to the future and developing professional skills.

Am I looking forward to the Boat Race? Yes absolutely. It is cool to be a part of such a historic event. The President’s Challenge – where we (CUBC) accepted Oxford’s challenge to race – made it all feel very real. The whole thing is unique and there is no other race like it. The training is very different too. There are less weights sessions than the national team program but we’re not skimping on the training front. I’d say we are doing as many rows and ergs as I’d have done at Caversham (GB’s national training centre).

“Breaking 5:40 felt like a sporting nirvana. The first time I did it I was in my parent’s shed.”

There are real superhumans at this place. You quickly realise the need for immense time management to balance rowing and the demands of a full academic course workload. There are some phenomenal individuals in the team like Charlie (Marcus) our President who coxed the winning men’s Blue Boat last year, he’s studying nuclear engineering alongside doing the Boat Race and running our team, that’s pretty incredible stuff.

Yesterday I got up at 5am. I hopped on a train to Ely, did two rowing sessions, got back in time for my 12 o’clock class in Cambridge which lasted two hours. I hadn’t eaten anything so, after class, I grabbed some food on my way to Goldie boathouse and then got on the minibus to go to a Boat Race event in London. I got back at 10pm and hit the books for an hour or so before calling it a night. Basically, there’s always something going on and that’s epic.

The boat will be called ‘fish’ and ‘chips’ or something like that. I’m excited about Trial Eights although I don’t know that much about it. After some erg testing, we’ll start preparing the crews. We’ll spend a bit of time in London after term finishes and then crack out the old Trial Eights race – it is a massive part of Boat Race tradition. I’ve never done a full-stick, flat-out race over the course (in that direction) before. It will be an interesting dynamic because the group breaks into two rival camps, and they’ll be pitted against one another. At the moment we are a tight knit group, so it’ll be interesting to see how that holds together. You want squad competitiveness, and it is good to foster that environment. And we’ll have a dinner afterwards. I think the whole thing helps to build an understanding about what it means to be a part of this team and CUBC.

Form is temporary, class is permanent. Obviously, you don’t turn rubbish overnight but what has happened in the past is irrelevant to the Boat Race. It is cool that Ollie and I did Tokyo and that we’ve got Rio 2016 Olympians Simon Schürch and Jamie Hunter in the team, but the Boat Race is different: it is a duel. We’ve got to adapt to a different kind of race and adapt to a different cohort of athletes. Look at our Fours Head crew, Luca Ferraro – the guy in the bow seat started rowing in 2016 at Lea Rowing Club in Hackney. It is great to mix rowers together who have totally different rowing experiences and journeys in our sport – and try to combine it all together. That all goes into the melting pot and history of the race, the club, and what it means to be a Blue. It is about the collective team – and that is a lot of fun.

A lot has been made about how strong Oxford is with all their Olympians. I like the idea that what you’ve done in the past is cool, but it is done. And now you’ve got to race 4¼ miles over a windy river; it’s totally different to racing a 2km on a lake. I’m not getting hung up on the form book and on who has done what. The Boat Race is all about what you can do on the day and how well your team can perform. It is about the collective – Ollie and I could be rowing the best we’ve ever rowed but we’ve got to have six other guys doing that too, and that’s exciting.

Rob Baker is running an awesome programme here; it’s approaching dynasty status. We’ve got a cool group of guys on the team and I’m looking forward to the legendary January training camp, I’m sure that will be a lot of fun. Hopefully it will help bring the squad closer together.

“I like the idea that what you’ve done in the past is cool, but it is done. And now you’ve got to race 4¼ miles over a windy river; it’s totally different to racing a 2km on a lake.”

Gabrielle Smith

Club: OUWBC

Olympic Experience: Tokyo 2020 CAN W2x, 6th

College: Regent’s Park

Course: MSc Water Science, Policy and Management

How was Tokyo 2020? Well, that depends how you look at it. It’s nice to have made the A-Final but on our best day we could have contended for the medals. The Romanians are speedy so maybe not the gold medal, but silver or bronze was possible. So, on that front it was disappointing. I felt like we didn’t quite achieve the result that we could have or show the speed we’d built as a partnership. At the same time Tokyo was our first regatta together and for my partner it was her first race on the senior circuit. No world cups, no world championships, her first senior event was the heat of the Olympics. So, in that sense sixth place is good.

There’s been a lot of turmoil at Rowing Canada. Dick (Tonks) was coaching us at the Olympics, and he’s now gone. His assistant coach, Jeremy is still there. It will be weird to go back to something that is totally different to when I left. It’s refreshing to be in the UK while all that turmoil is going. I hear whispers about it from friends back home but I’m not directly in the line of fire and I’m appreciative of that.

Has academic life in Oxford been a challenge? I graduated from my undergrad in 2016 so it’s been five years since I was last in school. It was an adjustment to go from full time training to being a student athlete again. Managing my time and managing my own expectations of myself have been tricky. I’ve found it hard to go from my first Olympics and the feeling that – everything needs to be perfect; the Olympics is coming everybody panic – to having classes to go to, new teammates to meet and learning how to sweep. These are a totally different set of circumstances to navigate. I’ve had to make a mental readjustment to figure it all out, but it’s going well and I’m enjoying it.

My program is split half and half between science and policy. On the science side it is climate change, public health, infectious diseases, and the other side is policy driven so, economics and institutional regulation. My first degree was in cell biology, so I have a science background and I don’t have much on the policy side so that has been interesting to learn about. I’m not sure what kind of job I want to go into long term, but it will be helpful to have a handle on both the science and the policy; it gives you a more complete picture.

For sure Andy Nelder’s approach is different from Dick Tonks. This year is a good breather for me. In Canada, at the national centre at least, training zones are chucked out of the window and boat speed is the key focus on any given day. And that’s fair enough, that system has its pros and cons. But at Oxford with Andy there is more of a focus on being in the correct training zone. It’s been an interesting shift.

In Canada we do 6km erg tests and at Oxford they do 5km erg tests. I don’t know where I’m supposed to be for a 5km; a bit faster than my 6km I guess. My first 5km erg test went well, it seemed good. It felt way better than a 6km. In a 6km, at halfway there’s still 3km to go but in a 5km you’ve only got 2.5km left, which is basically just 2km, which basically means you’re kinda done.

That whole twisting business, oh my goodness! I’ve swept approximately five times in my entire rowing career, but I do have a medal from the Canada Games – that’s my peak as a sweep athlete. I’m enjoying the challenge of going from sculling to sweep. In Canada there’s this idea that technically speaking sculling is more difficult than sweeping so any sculler that goes to sweep is instantly amazing. I wouldn’t say that I was instantly amazing – it was trickier than I expected – but I’m figuring it out and it’s getting better. I don’t know if one is easier than the other, I think they’re just different.

“We were never in the race. There was no reason for us to be nine seconds down on the French as we’ve beaten them before; we’d beaten all those crews before.”

“My Mum saw an interview with someone from Rowing Canada who was asking for tall strong people to come forward. Unbeknownst to me she set up a testing date for me and here we are a decade later.”

Wallingford went well. We raced an ‘A eight’ and a ‘B eight’, I was in the A eight and we had a good tussle with the crews from Leander and Brookes. We came out on top which is always good. If it weren’t for the weather, we would have raced the morning division as well as the afternoon one, but Andy decided against it.

I know everybody is making a very big deal of it. I don’t know that I entirely understand why. Everybody is excited, ready to go, and everything needs to be perfect for Trial Eights! I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense to me – why do we care so much about this? I’m just going to show up and pull hard.

I started rowing through lifeguarding. I used to lifeguard in Toronto on the beaches. We had these big wooden row boats that must’ve weighed 300lbs (136kg) or more. You’d load all your equipment in your rowboat for the day and row out to the beach you were guarding. And I really liked it. It was a good workout, and the sun was always nice to watch coming up and I liked racing the boys. That was during the summer of 2012 when the London Olympics were on. And my Mum saw an interview with someone from Rowing Canada who was asking for tall strong people to come forward. Unbeknownst to me she set up a testing date for me and here we are a decade later.

There’s a real mix of rowing experience at OUWBC which is cool. There’s a huge rivalry between Canada and the US but it is particularly cool to get to know Erin Reelick. She’s a very impressive rower and I’ve seen her floating around when we’ve both been on the senior circuit at the same time. It is great to be at Oxford with her and hear her experiences, and to learn how to sweep from one of the best.

I’d say I’m more the quiet leader type. I’d also like to say that I can get away with some jokes that others probably can’t get away with – especially with Andy. And I like to make use of that.

I’m partial to maple syrup. But golden syrup is good too and it doesn’t exist back in Canada. Also, the chocolate here is good. Cadbury is cleaning up against any of the chocolate back at home.

Ruby Tew

Club: CUBC

Olympic Experience: Tokyo 2020 NZL W4x, 8th Rio 2016 NZL W8+, 4th

College: Queen’s College

Course: MBA

Japan did such a good job of running an Olympics during Covid – it was an incredible effort. It was amazing that we even got to go. I feel sad for everyone who didn’t get to see Tokyo itself and probably won’t go back for a long time, but it was still an amazing experience. I was lucky enough to be there for the Rugby World Cup in 2019 so I’ve done some of the touristy stuff before.

We were disappointed with our result at Tokyo 2020. But the preceding few months were turbulent and I’m not sure what more we could have done. We did everything we could, and the result reflects that, but it wasn’t good enough. We left disappointed but at least not feeling like we could have done more. No regrets.

I watched the last five minutes of the eights race from Heathrow airport. We were kicked out of the Olympic village 48 hours after racing and I came straight from Tokyo to the UK. I felt so sad that I was going to miss my teammates win all their medals, so I got a link on my phone ready to go. I knew it would be tight, so I had my parents waiting ready to Face-Time me and show me the race. I got a full recap from my dad as soon I got off the plane. I had six weeks in London staying on a friend’s couch before starting at Cambridge, it was a strange time.

Saying goodbye was hard. When I left home, I wasn’t just saying, goodbye I’m going to the Olympics I was saying, goodbye and if we’re lucky I’ll probably see you in two Christmases time. With the MBA, the Boat Race, and current travel restrictions I can’t go home anytime soon.

Dad always got it. I can talk to him about my rowing without having to explain it –I know other rowers who get frustrated having to explain it to their parents. My dad (Steve Tew, the former chief executive officer of New Zealand Rugby) knows so much about high performance sport which is very lucky for me. It is a privileged position to be in and has made a big difference.

I’ve grown up as part of the All Blacks family and it gave me a good perspective of teamwork. What they do really well is embed the feeling that the team is your family, and that culture goes for the whole organisation. Dad drove a lot of that. I know what it means to have not just your immediate team as a family but your teammates’ partners and kids and all of those who work for the wider organisation as a family too. It’s not just the athletes, it is right up to the CEO and all the way back down.

Here go the Wellingtonians! No one in my family has ever rowed before. I moved schools at 14 and the girls I made friends with were rowers. I grew up in Wellington which is not a good place to learn to row. Not at all. It is so windy. We rowed once every couple of weeks but got very good at ergs and running up hills. At regattas in Karapiro on windy days you’d hear the commentators over the loudspeakers say, “Here go the Wellingtonians – no one else can get their blades in – they’re fit and know how to row in huge white caps!”

Good rowing can be done in different ways. At Cambridge there’s a lot of different rowing backgrounds and bringing them together is a work in progress. We’ve had many discussions about how to row an eight. And it doesn’t necessarily need to look perfect as long as everyone is in the water and out of the water at the same time, getting good grip etc. Our main example of a boat not needing to look perfect is always Hamish (Bond) and Eric (Murray).

My parents said, go and make some friends who aren’t rowers. In 2013 and 2014 I turned down my invite to New Zealand’s U23 trials and did two years of full-time study at Dunedin. My best friends from university still turned out to be from university rowing! Those two years helped me a lot. I know how to combine training and studying and to have confidence outside of being an athlete. It’s not been too long since I finished my undergrad, but the Cambridge MBA was still a shock to the system. The MBA is intense and it’s not easy to find a balance between; rowing, studying, and having a social life. I’ve even deleted Instagram from my phone to recapture some time in the day.

“I’ve grown up as part of the All Blacks family and it gave me a good perspective of teamwork. What they do really well is embed the feeling that the team is your family.”

I hate training and love racing. I’d rather do a morning of seat racing than a morning of steady-state rowing. I’m looking forward to Trial Eights – it is always nice to race – but I don’t know that much about it. I probably know enough –I know that we will race two even eights down the Boat Race course and it is as much a test of the coxswains as it is the rowers and that we have a big dinner afterwards. It sounds like a good way to finish the year.

I’ve no idea what my future plans look like. I’m trying to work out if I’ll be able to row for New Zealand this summer. They’re trying to give athletes more freedom to do things like go away, study abroad and then re-join the programme – which is amazing. Grace (Prendergast) and I are a test case. And the year after the Olympics is perfect because we’re probably doing more training than anybody in New Zealand. Grace and I only had six weeks off whereas those guys – especially the ones who’ve done a couple of Olympic campaigns – will get three or four months off. Long term I’d like to get involved with a sports charity and the women in sport movement.

For the Maadi Cup we made over 1200 meals in seven days, it was insane. Lucy Spoors and I founded a catering company in Cambridge, New Zealand, called Athlete Food Co. which we ran together for six years. The initial growth was something like 700% and people were like, wow this is amazing. I kind of wish it wasn’t so great purely because if I’d had higher expectations of us at the start and we’d been a bit more ambitious in year one, then we’d be better off now, but with a lower growth figure.

My body is like, what are you doing? Going from sweep to scull was totally fine. Going from scull to the wrong side of sweep is really hard; my body does not like it. I sculled as a junior and then I was a bowsider for five years and raced in the women’s eight at the Rio 2016 Olympics. And then I went back to being a sculler for 2019 through to Tokyo. When I arrived at Cambridge the first conversation I had with Paddy (Ryan) was about swapping to strokeside because Grace is bowside and Grace is the best bowsider in the world. It’s another challenge.

What’s my role in the squad? Honestly, I don’t have an answer! That’s something I need to work on. I don’t necessarily feel like I’m the best version of my rower-self at the moment. You come into a program like this, and there’s an expectation to lead, but actually the international athletes are way more unfit than they’re used to, doing far less rowing than what’s normal for them, and trying to do all the other academic and social stuff. It is hard to be a real team leader when you’re sitting in this uncomfortable place of not feeling like you are being a very good rower. I know I’m not doing a bad job, but it’s not the standard that I’m used to. It is a really weird space to sit in, mentally.

At Fours Head I’m glad we were crew number 43 not 337 or whatever it goes to. It was freezing. We bow stroked our four because I’d had Covid and just swapped to strokeside so I was not the ideal strokeperson and we needed Imogen (Grant) in the bows to steer. We came second to Leander by two seconds which was disappointing, but we still enjoyed it. It was a cool experience for Grace and me. We don’t really do head races in New Zealand or certainly not as a part of the program. We do them on an almost daily basis for training in Karapiro but that’s not quite the same.

In New Zealand we can go 30 kilometres and the coach might say three things. At CUBC the coaches give you a lot more feedback, it is constant. That’s something that Grace and I have had to get used to. You have to listen and pay attention whereas in New Zealand we could kind of tune out for long stretches. It’s the same with the coxswains – the coxswains at Cambridge speak a lot. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but we’re so used to Caleb (Shepherd) and Sam (Bosworth) who don’t talk at all – they might say one word and we all know exactly what it means and what to do.

I’ve learnt a lot about what I’ve still got to learn as well as appreciating the skills I already have that are super useful. My MBA course has been made so much easier by the fact that I’m used to communicating with a range of different people. The teamwork I’ve learnt from my time on the water is so applicable to pretty much any situation. That’s the main thing for me.

“I don’t necessarily feel like I’m the best version of my rower-self at the moment...the international athletes are way more unfit than they’re used to.”