What does it take to become an Olympian? We asked two Team USA rowers

Rowing - Olympics: Day 1 — TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 24: (L-R) Jessica Thoennes, Charlotte Buck, Gia Doonan, Brooke Mooney, Olivia Coffey, Regina Salmons, Meghan Musnicki, Kristine O'Brien and Katelin Guregian of Team United States compete during the Women's Eight Heat 2 on day one of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Sea Forest Waterway on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

June Fergus is an intern for “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.”

Andrea Asuaje is a producer with “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.”Prior to her work at GBH, she was a senior producer and show runner at Rococo Punch; and a reporter, producer and co-host of WBUR’s radio series and podcast, Kind World.

July 26, 2024

Rowing is a sport well known to many New Englanders, especially Bostonians, and especially in October. That’s when crews or teams of rowers take over the Charles River for the Head of The Charles, a three-day rowing competition and the world’s largest regatta. Right now, some of these rowers are in Paris competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“We’re doing about 14 to 15 sessions per week. And that’s spread between rowing on the water, which we typically do once a day, and then cross-training, and then we shuffle in some weights in there,” said Olivia Coffey, a three-time world champion and Harvard graduate competing at her second Olympic games this summer. “I would say, on average, we do about 250 kilometers or the equivalent of the rowing motion, or exercise, per week. You’re kind of going 40 or 50 kilometers a day. That’s like basically doing a marathon if you are a runner every day.”

As their event draws nearer, excitement is building among the athletes.

“Every day it just gets more and more real. I feel like that might be a little bit different from [Olivia’s] perspective, but it’s definitely quite surreal. I feel so excited,” said Margaret Hedeman, who is competing at her first Olympic games this summer and who is originally from Concord, Mass. “I don’t really know what to expect since it’s my first one, but I also have so many people around me who have been to an Olympics before and know what it’s all about.”

Outside of the limelight, athletes live and train in the Olympic Village. Coffey, the veteran of the two rowers, said her favorite part of being in the Olympic Village is one spectators don’t often see: the mundanity of a day-to-day life.

“It’s just kind of overwhelming just to be surrounded by so many talented, gifted people,” Coffey said. “We’re living together. We’re doing our laundry together. We’re eating together. It’s a pretty intimate environment. And we’re pretty sheltered from everything else that’s happening around us. So it’s just like our little Olympic bubble.”

GUESTS

Olivia Coffey, member of the Team USA women’s rowing team, Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024

Margaret Hedeman, member of the Team USA women’s rowing team, Paris 2024