Fizz McNally
Squads
About Fizz:
Why did you choose Medicine?
4th year medic on the undergraduate course but graduated with philosophy BA last year for my intercalation.
I just want to help people and being a doctor was one of the purest forms of that. It was also the one I thought I could be most effective in. My mum’s a surgeon and my dad’s a nurse so the decision to become a doctor was not taken lightly, and it was logically driven as much as it was emotionally.
Why did you first try rowing?
Just went along to the taster because one of my mates had mentioned she was going and didn’t want to alone. They said my erg was good, I liked being told I was good at something, I signed up.
Who introduced you to the sport of rowing?
Tim Schmalz (I can’t remember my novice coach, mainly because we only had about 4 outings with them before things got shut down and 6 months later Tim took a chance on me.) at Sidney Sussex Boat Club
What are your proudest rowing achievements?
My M1 crew I coached in Easter term went down 8 places in May bumps. Seeing them keep fighting and seeing how much they’d improved over just a couple of months was an indescribable feeling of pride. I really miss coaching them.
I was also in the W1 that got double blades and consistently ranked top 3, if not top, for races throughout the 2021/22 season. Sidney hadn’t been in division one in decades, it was very cool to be in a history making boat. This fell in the middle of a bad depressive episode for me so whilst rowing was one of the few things that kept me going, the numbness meant that I don’t remember feeling that joy or pride that I should’ve. However, I do look back on it with a lot of nostalgia and amazement in what the crew was able to achieve from so little.
Do you have a favourite Boat Race? Which one and why?
2023, my friends were in it so it was a really really cool opportunity to see them smash it.
What would winning The Boat Race mean to you?
That my fraction mattered and that I could be great.