Alex began her journey in TC’s nutrition and exercise physiology program with the goal of learning how to better help athletes maximize performance and remain healthy while training. But she did not expect to be applying it to herself. A lightweight rower in college and 2016 Olympic hopeful, Alex stopped rowing competitively after a rib stress fracture in 2014. She instead turned to running, cycling, and yoga to help herself recover, in addition to beginning her own research on sports nutrition and physiology to figure out what she could have done differently while training. This interest led her to coaching rowing, and for the last two years she served as assistant coach for the Princeton women’s lightweight rowing team. Her goals were to help the female athletes she coached maximize their potential while minimizing injury and avoiding overtraining. She still wanted to learn more and help more athletes, which brought her to TC. After reading, “Lend Me Your Oars,” she immediately emailed and joined the EXerT clinic as well.

With the goals of having fun and remaining healthy, Alex decided to try training for rowing again in the fall. By applying her experiences with coaching, yoga, EXerT lab, and what she was learning in her classes, she picked up her rowing career where she left off in 2014 and had some successful races in the lightweight single. Over winter break, she headed down to Sarasota, FL with a group of rowers who are racing at Olympic Trials in March. Boat lineups are still being decided, but she aims to race at the trials in the lightweight women’s double. She feels that this time around (as opposed to 2016), she has a much better sense of the importance of nutrition and recovery, which is partly due to what she has learned and seen so far at TC. While training, she will also continue to pursue her masters degree in nutrition and exercise physiology. She is looking forward to learning more that she can apply to her own and her teammates’ training and nutrition, in addition to helping other athletes with this in the future.