“Rowing was something I kind of got into by accident and three years later going on four, here we are now. It’s a huge commitment and a huge chunk of your time, but it’s something I really want to do. You develop extremely tight bonds with everyone on the team but mostly the people you have in your boat. You have to have implicit trust in every person that sits with you, so you know that they are pulling just as hard as you do and love the sport just as much as you do and so that you can win those races and come together as a team because the chemistry is almost more important than any of the technique and speed you’re going to get in the end.”

Alyssa McGownd