SOPHIE DEANS
CLASS OF 2013

 

Rowing is the ultimate team sport. Trust among team members is essential and the strongest friendships are built through rowing because you see each other at your highest and lowest points.

 

 

 
Sophie Deans (Class of 2013) stepped into a boat for the first time at the Queenwood Boatshed in 2009 and has been rowing ever since. Her passion coupled with her talent for the sport have enabled her to travel around the world. She attended Yale University on a rowing scholarship and now completing her Masters at Cambridge University. She is currently reading Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Head of the River each year was the culmination of everything we had been training for and the ultimate test.

I started rowing with Queenwood at the end of Year 8, after moving to Sydney from New Zealand. A friend in my Queenwood netball team convinced me to attend the Learn to Row program, and I never looked back. I always looked forward to Head of the River each year as well as Nationals at the end of the season as it was the culmination of everything we had been training for and they were the ultimate test. We were able to see how we compared to the rest of the country.

 

Rowing is the ultimate team sport. Trust among team members is essential and strong friendships are built because you see each other at your highest and lowest points. You can’t win races together without pushing through the toughest workouts together. Through rowing, I was able to secure a place at Yale University in the United States. My experience at Yale was eye-opening and so much fun. Balancing academic and rowing demands was definitely intense and kept me very busy, but that’s also what made it so rewarding. I learned so much about America and met so many people with different life experiences to my own.

 

I am now studying a MPhil in Management at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Rowing at Cambridge is unique because it is one of the few places where it is an accessible sport and many students learn to row while studying here. There is a lot of history and tradition behind rowing in England, from the Boat Race to the Henley Royal Regatta. It is a privilege to be a part of a sport with such a strong tradition in British culture. It meant a lot to me to compete in the Oxford-Cambridge race. I had to work hard throughout the year to be selected but making the boat was just the first step. We had no idea how fast Oxford would be so it was so exciting to get ahead and extremely rewarding to get the win. The atmosphere was like no other event. It is the most spectated rowing event in the world and the media attention and huge crowds definitely add to the excitement, as well as to the nerves!

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