2023 ATHLETE Q&A
Alexandra Riddell-Webster
Nationality
GBR
Height
1.72m
School/High School
Godolphin and Latymer
Club
CUBC
Undergraduate/Graduate
Undergraduate
Undergraduate course
Computer Science
What is your Cambridge College?
Murray Edwards
Why are you studying your course?
Because it’s interesting.
Year you first started rowing?
2013
First rowing club?
Godolphin and Latymer School
Why/How did you get into rowing?
I went for a taster session and got hooked.
Name of first rowing coach?
Daniel (Dan) Safdari
Who is your rowing idol?
Katherine Grainger
Who would be your dream team eight to row with from everyone in the history of rowing?
I wouldn’t want to row with anyone other than the girls in my eight.
What’s your rowing history, and what has been your biggest achievement so far?
Started rowing at 13, represented GB in 2019 at Munich regatta and Junior World Championships in JW4- and Blondie in 2021, 2022.
Have you raced in the Boat Race before? If yes, when?
Blondie 2021, 2022.
Have you ever been at school/ university/on a team with anyone at ‘the other place’?
Have friends at Oxford, all of whom (I’m sure…) will be cheering for me.
Your favourite race so far?
Blondie 2022, purely because of the volume of booze at the finish line.
What is the best place you have ever rowed?
The Thames at sunrise.
Obviously, it’s long hours and hard work – what inspires you to keep rowing?
My friends and teammates.
What do you feel is your greatest achievement through rowing, be it accolades or something more?
Blondie 2021
What is your favourite sports quote?
“After a while – not long – you will no longer exist, and the woods and rocks and sky will continue, unchanged, for thousands of years after you. What is it that has called you so suddenly out of nothingness to enjoy for a brief while a spectacle which remains quite indifferent to you? The conditions for your existence are almost as old as the rocks. For thousands of years men have striven and suffered and begotten and women have brought forth in pain.”
How would you describe the sport to a non-rower?
Pull hard on a stick to go backwards.