In just two years, Elizabeth Gilmore has had in insanely meteoric trajectory from indoor rowing newbie to indoor rowing champion and world record holder, to Head of the Charles course record breaker. And it all started with getting on the erg to rehab a running injury.

After guilt-tripping her son into learning to row, Jenn followed suit. At 38 she stepped into a boat for the first time and quickly became an accomplished masters rower. She also gained new appreciation for her grandpa – Joe Rantz – who was a member of the 1936 University of Washington V8 that won Olympic gold in Berlin. By unlikely happenstance, Joe’s scrapbooks became the spark for The Boys in the Boat.

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 2002, Lindsay Dare Shoop reluctantly walked-on at the University of Virginia. Within a year she became an NCAA Division I All American. In four years she broke a world record and earned her first World Championship. Within six years her hard work manifested a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Today she seeks to help others remove self-imposed limitations. This Fall, 20 years after it all began, the author of Better Great Than Never returns to UVA as an assistant coach, paying it forward.

This thought-provoking conversation considers serendipity, struggle, pressures on student athletes, walk-ons, team-building, rowing for life, Head of the Charles (and being coxed by Mary Whipple), and a whole lot more.

The World's Toughest Row is a 2,800-mile race across the Pacific Ocean. On June 12, 2024, Hannah Huppi, Phil Doyle, and Hunter Deuel of Horizon Racing, will join 20+ teams to shove off in Monterey, CA and race to Kauai, HI in unsupported, man-powered ocean rowing boats. We talk about star-gazing, rowing into the unknown, competitive drive, Cheez-Its, and fundraising for Laureus Sport For Good USA.

Chicago Rowing Union (CRU) is the Midwest's only LGBTQ+ rowing organization, and one of just a few such clubs in the world. CRU member and social media manager Michael Toutloff talks with us about the importance of safe spaces and being yourself, finding community and competition on the water, and proudly flying the flag at regattas. 

In 2021, USRowing boated its first-ever Beach Sprints National team and in 2022 Next Level Rowing appeared on the scene, training high performance rowers who have gone on to win medals at domestic and international coastal regattas. To talk about this discipline which has been raced for generations in Europe, we connect with coastal rowing rising stars Christopher Bak and Christine Cavallo, and their coach Ben Booth, co-founder of Next Level Rowing.

Capital Juniors and Wisco alum Rebekah Armstrong talks about the (slowly) changing face of rowing in the United States, finding mentors and support, and her drive to help BIPOC athletes as a certified mental performance consultant.

Indoor rowing popularity has exploded since early days of the COVID pandemic in 2020, with a whole new rowing community coming together around the erg, buoyed in large part by people who have never touched an oar. John Steventon – a gold medal and world record holding indoor rower – started to make rowing workout videos during lockdown, and his RowAlong YouTube channel soared to popularity. Today it boasts hundreds of fun, imaginative rowing workouts.