Egyptian Nermine Khenefar found rowing in her 40s when, winded on her ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, friend and explorer Omar Samra suggested she take up the sport to increase her aerobic capacity. After just a few years, Nermine is an avid masters rower and indoor rowing competitor who is seeking to row everywhere she travels and welcomes visitors to row with her on the Nile.

Meet the leadership that helps make HOCR happen – new HOCR Executive Director Tori Stevens, and Director of Racing Brendan Mulvey. Find out their personal stories of involvement in sport, and what about this regatta attracts 12,000 athletes and a few hundred thousand spectators each year to the waters and banks of the Charles River.

Kick off Breast Cancer Awareness month with Survivor Rowing Network Executive Director Beth Kohl and rower, survivor, and Pink Ribbon Row organizer Angie Gabel. Our guests are on a mission to create more opportunities for cancer survivors to row. Since launching in 2023, SRN has grown to 27 programs and in 2024, Head of the Charles will host its first-ever Survivor Row event.

A member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic team and a longtime masters rower, Sue Hooten has a lifetime of rowing memories. She learned to row in California in the early 1970s, really appreciated the boathouse sock box in Philadelphia, and has raced around the world. In March 2018, her husband, former National Team and Vesper Boat Club coach John Hooten, had a medical emergency on the water while training in his 1x. He was out with his training partner, without a coach, and – like most rowers – was not wearing a PFD.

Teens are aware of stranger danger from a really young age, but most of them have never thought about misconduct from known adults. Using SafeSport training as a springboard, Coach Libby Boghossian leads in-depth discussions with her Brookline High School rowers about the concepts of consent, power imbalance, and coercion.

Head of the Charles Announcing Committee co-chair, USRowing Para High Performance Director, and Massachusetts native Ellen Minzner. From walk on at Villanova to 5-time National Team member, to her transition into coaching and program development Ellen saw the long game: changing the status quo of her clubs, organizations, and communities. She also gives a peek behind the curtains at the world’s premier annual rowing competition - the Head of the Charles - from her vantage point in the announcers booth on top of Cambridge Boat Club.

In this second episode in a special series on gender identity policies in rowing, we talk with Ann Strayer, OLY, Varsity Women’s Coach at Oakland United Rowing. Together with fellow OUR coach and Olympian Erin Cafaro they have written a letter in support of USRowing’s gender identity policy, highlighting the importance of welcoming transgender and non-binary scholastic athletes into the boathouse, and allow them to row as the gender they identify with.

Dr. Mary O’Connor was a member of the influential 1976 Yale women’s rowing program that sparked big changes following the passage of Title IX. Today, she’s a member of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports – an advocacy group “seeking to elevate and empower female athletes by protecting safety, fairness, and opportunity for girls and women.”

Seattle has the Pococks. Philadelphia has the Kellys. And Boston has the Stones. We’re really excited to kick off season 4 with mother/daughter Olympians Lisa and Gevvie Stone. Lisa was a member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic rowing team in 1976 and went on to a 42-year coaching career. Gevvie was a natural when she took up rowing in high school and was a member of the 2012, 2016 and 2021 U.S. Olympic teams.