Senior Lauren Chen grips the paddle firmly with both hands. Surrounded by the cheers of the crowd and the shouts of the coxswain, she slices through the water, boosting the boat forward. Chen has been rowing since the end of sophomore year, and will continue her rowing journey at Rutgers College.
“I’m excited to continue being on a team and continuing my athletic career at Rutgers,” Chen said. “It’s a big part of my identity.”
Chen began her athletic career as a gymnast, competing in the sport for over a decade. She progressed quickly through the lower levels before joining the elite Talent Opportunity Program, where she often trained for over 20 hours per week. At the end of sophomore year, Chen’s injuries, which included a herniated disc and issues with her back, forced her to rethink continuing her childhood sport.
“It was definitely really difficult, and I felt that I wasn’t progressing because my injuries held me back,” Chen said. “It weighed on me mentally and it was a big reason why I quit.”
As Chen entered junior year, she began to consider other sports. Chen was introduced to rowing through an old gymnastics teammate in 2022, who mentioned a summer camp called Learn to Row that she attended and enjoyed.
“I tried rowing and it was really great,” Chen said. “I knew I wanted to continue being athletic, because it was just such a big part of my life and I think I would have been lost without any athletics.”
Chen learned to balance rowing with her academics. Currently, she has practice six days a week, often for 2-3 hours a day. After practice, she has dinner and jumps straight into doing homework. She rows with the Los Gatos Rowing Club, which practices at the Lexington Reservoir. She feels a particular affinity for the sport’s collaborative nature.
“In gymnastics, you have a team but you’re often competing against each other, whereas in rowing, we row with each other,” Chen said. “Doing it with them and doing it for them is totally different. There isn’t much of the unhealthy competition within the team.”
One of her favorite memories of rowing was the 2025 Nationals Competition in Florida, where, as the alternate, Chen trained solo in her own boat for a whole month leading up to the competition. Ultimately, Chen’s team won fourth place in the Women’s Youth 2V Quad division.
“It was really difficult being on my own, but at the last minute, one of the girls had to pull out and I raced at nationals as a novice and we ended up doing really well,” Chen said. “So we were surprised and happy about that.”
Through rowing, Chen has learned the importance of hard work and dedication, but also of being in a team. As a result, another aspect of Chen’s journey is her desire to share rowing with others.
“A really important part about why I’m sharing my story is to get rowing out there because our women’s team is very small — maybe half or a quarter of the size of what it could be,” Chen said. “I want to highlight and bring people to this sport. It’s a really great sport for athletes as high schoolers or even in college, because there are many opportunities to walk on to a Division I program.”
In college, Chen plans to continue dedicating her time and energy to rowing.
“I think having the team there would be really great especially for such a big transition,” Chen said. “As an incoming freshman, I’m just excited to be a part of it all.”
