Alexandra Wiley
Squad
About Alexandra Wiley
Where did you learn to row and who was your first coach?
St Catharines Rowing Club, Canada - Michele Fisher.
What inspires you about sport?
Constant dedication to improvement, optimisation, and pushing the envelope of known capabilities.
Explain your earliest memory of The Boat Race
I was watching YouTube videos in high school and saw one about The Boat Race. Coming from Canada and having just started rowing at the time, I was captivated by this sort of far off mystical allure The Boat Race had, being so far away both geographically and temporally as I was probably 15 at the time.
Do you relish in hours in the gym and miles in the dark, or do you live for race days?
I am and always have been the one who loves the behind the scenes training more than the race day. I love the hard work, I love feeling proud of what I'm putting myself through and what Ive done at the end of a practice. There is a part of me too that just enjoys the straight up hard work without the anxiety created by the pressure of racing. Pushing the boundaries for both my team and myself is exhilarating.
What's the secret to managing elite-level sport with studying at one of the top universities in the world?
Taking things one step at a time. Worry about practice at practice, worry about school at school. Forget about the nonsense and set your bar of expectation high. Do not anguish at being comparatively bad in the moment, keep your head down and push yourself everyday, greatness will come.
