Bucknell University Athletics
row2k Spring Collegiate Preview - Bucknell's Victoria Kielty
1/31/2013 7:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
Jan. 31, 2013
By Victoria Kielty for row2k.com
HOW I GOT IN TO ROWING
My introduction to rowing was not too dissimilar to any youngster's introduction to high school sport. At age 13, if all my friends did something, naturally I had to do it too. However I was anything but athletic. In fact I was its absolute antithesis. I spent my lunchtimes and afternoons in orchestra, singing lessons, play rehearsals and various choirs and vocal ensembles. I never excelled at anything much until I discovered music.
Naturally when my parents became aware of this newfound sporting passion of mine, they were duly supportive but clearly a little surprised. The physical education staff at St. Catherine's school for girls (Melbourne, Australia) took all who volunteered down to the boathouse and asked us to sit on some of these strange machines and go as hard as we possibly could for a short distance, a few hundred meters. You can imagine my surprise when I was one of the first to complete the distance, even before some of the most athletic girls in the year. I was a little disbelieving, wondering whether I could disprove what looked like a fluke; an off chance performance. And so, much to the contrary of my friends and family's (as well as my own) expectations, I continued with the sport.
At the beginning of tenth grade I switched schools. I moved to Methodist Ladies' College (also in Melbourne). Exponentially larger than St. Catherine's at 2,000 girls (compared to 800) so the move was an intimidating one. I wanted to continue my involvement with rowing and so contacted the head coach, Brent McDonald. He welcomed my interest and asked that I attend the team's preseason rowing camp before the beginning of the school year. MLC was a formidable opponent in Australian Schoolgirl Rowing, holding several national titles to its name and with the largest girls team in the field at well over one hundred athletes.
Needless to say I questioned my decision (and sanity) many times in the lead up to camp. This however turned out to be the best decision I have made to date. I learned under the MLC program to love the sport and respect the commitment needed to succeed in it. I made friends for life on that team, bonding either over a common love of camaraderie or the shared hunger for a relentless pursuit of perfection. I competed in their varsity quad my junior year and their championship eight the following season, both times traveling to the Australian Rowing National Championships, first on the Sydney Olympic Course and then Lake Barrington in Tasmania; the most beautiful course I have ever seen. From that point I intended to follow rowing to a university level, and began rowing with several of my high school teammates for Melbourne University Boat Club.
Continue reading Part 1 and Part 2 of Victoria's story about how she got her start in rowing in Australia, found her way to Bucknell, and ultimately fractured three vertebrae in her neck during her freshman year. Part 2 focuses on how she made her recovery and is back rowing for the Bison.
