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Duke Rowing Origins: Alice Elworthy
6/5/2020 5:12:00 PM | Rowing
DURHAM, N.C. – This week's Duke Rowing Origins features Alice Elworthy, a Christchurch, New Zealand native who just completed her freshman season for the Blue Devils.
In Duke's lone recorded meet this season, the Carolina Cup at Clemson, Elworthy sat in the 2V8 boat that won its race by over 13 seconds. Prior to arriving in Durham, she attended St. Margaret's College in New Zealand, whom she competed for in addition to the Southern Rowing Performance Centre club.
How old were you when you started rowing?
AE: "I was probably 14 or so. I spent a lot of time at regattas watching my brothers [Hugo and Monty] row, but I never actually sat on the erg or got in a boat until I started high school."
Did you have any family influence that got you to try rowing?
AE: "Definitely. Rowing has always been a thing that is pretty trendy in New Zealand in general. Lots of my friends did it as well. I'd say the thing that made me do it was probably that my brothers all did it. My older brother [Hugo] was definitely a lot better than me at rowing and I just kind of followed his path, but he chose the national team direction and then I chose the college direction. In New Zealand, it's a little bit different. You sort of have to make the choice between rowing at university in America or staying in New Zealand and training to be on the national New Zealand team. They don't really believe that U.S. rowing is similar to New Zealand rowing. They think the training style is different and they're a bit unsure about it. I decided to choose the university direction personally, but I followed my brother's footsteps initially."
Did you play any other sports growing up?
AE: "Yeah. I don't know if you know of the sport – it's called netball. That was quite trendy for schoolgirls. I wasn't very good at it. Honestly, I was not coordinated at all. Ball skills are not my thing. I wasn't very good at rowing at first either, but then I just kept at it because that was what my family wanted us all to do, so I was like 'I'll train.' Then, during high school, in the offseason, I would play basketball. That was also recreational. I preferred basketball because it was just kind of a laugh."
How long did it take after you started rowing for it to become your primary sport?
AE: "I was not very serious in netball. It was just so I could hang out with my friends and do something on the weekend. Rowing was always going to be a big commitment for me because it was such a big thing in my family, but also because in general, it's the kind of sport that you don't really have an easy option for. There's not a social version of rowing. I was on a lot of social teams where you would practice once a week and then you have a game, but in rowing, you have to train six days of the week. I think it just naturally became a big part of my life because you spend a lot of time with the team and you spend a lot of hours just for that one thing. I think from the start, it was always a big thing in my life. It was the first thing I actually tried hard for, I'd say. I had to have mental strength for it."
What led to your decision to pursue NCAA rowing as opposed to staying in New Zealand and trying to make the national team?
AE: "As I started rowing, I noticed lots of the older girls would go off to universities in the U.S. I guess that was what sort of first brought my attention to it. I thought about the New Zealand pathway and I think I just had a lot of setbacks. It became apparent that you have to really be lucky with being a representative of a national team, particularly with rowing. If you get one terrible injury, it can throw you off your course. I felt like the U.S. university direction seemed like it was more forgiving in that sense. They take care of you.
"Personally, I felt like I wanted to build on that sense of security that I wanted. I think I worked best when I'm not in a pressured situation. I find I do my best 2K when I don't think about it all day, I just sit down and I do it. I think having stuff on my mind makes me not perform as well."
When you were researching different U.S. universities, what was it about Duke that caught your attention?
AE: "My older cousin actually went to Duke. He was a Robertson Scholarship [recipient]. We know each other easy enough, but I wouldn't say we were tight. But the universities that I really looked at were the ones that I had heard of, and because of that I had heard of Duke. I looked at a few other universities and I just thought that the comradery around sport was quite exceptional compared to other universities. It met all criteria for me. It had that community sort of vibe and it seemed like the student-athletes were really respected.
"I noticed here that it seemed like you had a lot of well-rounded students that weren't necessarily extremely academic, but really brought something different to the table. There were a lot of things."
Were you nervous about going to college in a different country?
AE: "I didn't really think about it for a while. It was sort of this thing that I was doing, but I didn't think about the actual experience. I finished my school in the summer of 2018, but our summer is in December. So, I finished in December, then I had almost a year of training and working. It was this thing that was sort of in the distant future for a while. It really hit me maybe two weeks before I was leaving and then it was like 'I'm not going to see all these people for a while,' and 'I'm going to move into a different country,' which was going to be strange. Part of me was excited and part of me was, knowing that I was going into a team and would immediately have that support network, was really helpful for me. I think it was what sort of eased my mind when I got nervous."
Did you face a culture shock when you first arrived on campus?
AE: "Slightly. I would say that we would find different things offensive to people here. I would say things and it wouldn't have any connotations behind it for me, but for other people it would. I could learn the different things that you should and shouldn't say, even if it was well-intentioned. Just because we've got different histories and different ideas, and we've had our own different setbacks as countries, there's different topics that bring up emotion, for sure.
"In general, I noticed that I did not know any American history compared to anyone else. Other than that, not really. Everyone was pretty welcoming. I had worries that being international, people might feel like they don't know how to interact, but I just noticed that I didn't feel like I was seen as a foreigner."
How long did it take for you to get a sense of the team chemistry?
AE: "Even when I did my official visit, I couldn't tell who was in what year group because everyone was so tight. I really like it because I think you can pick and choose what you do with the squad and how involved you get socially. I think they're all willing to sort of have their own friends outside of the squad, but also come together and really bond and be a tight-knit community. I think most of the squads I've been on in general have been quite similar there. It was definitely noticeable how there was no year group difference in friendships, because in high school, I'd say you definitely still were rowing with your year group a lot and you were friends with most of your year group.
"I definitely think at Duke, it was noticeable how when freshmen come in, it takes them about two weeks to make really good friends with sophomores, juniors and seniors. I really think they are quite welcoming."
#GoDuke
In Duke's lone recorded meet this season, the Carolina Cup at Clemson, Elworthy sat in the 2V8 boat that won its race by over 13 seconds. Prior to arriving in Durham, she attended St. Margaret's College in New Zealand, whom she competed for in addition to the Southern Rowing Performance Centre club.
How old were you when you started rowing?
AE: "I was probably 14 or so. I spent a lot of time at regattas watching my brothers [Hugo and Monty] row, but I never actually sat on the erg or got in a boat until I started high school."
Did you have any family influence that got you to try rowing?
AE: "Definitely. Rowing has always been a thing that is pretty trendy in New Zealand in general. Lots of my friends did it as well. I'd say the thing that made me do it was probably that my brothers all did it. My older brother [Hugo] was definitely a lot better than me at rowing and I just kind of followed his path, but he chose the national team direction and then I chose the college direction. In New Zealand, it's a little bit different. You sort of have to make the choice between rowing at university in America or staying in New Zealand and training to be on the national New Zealand team. They don't really believe that U.S. rowing is similar to New Zealand rowing. They think the training style is different and they're a bit unsure about it. I decided to choose the university direction personally, but I followed my brother's footsteps initially."
Did you play any other sports growing up?
AE: "Yeah. I don't know if you know of the sport – it's called netball. That was quite trendy for schoolgirls. I wasn't very good at it. Honestly, I was not coordinated at all. Ball skills are not my thing. I wasn't very good at rowing at first either, but then I just kept at it because that was what my family wanted us all to do, so I was like 'I'll train.' Then, during high school, in the offseason, I would play basketball. That was also recreational. I preferred basketball because it was just kind of a laugh."
How long did it take after you started rowing for it to become your primary sport?
AE: "I was not very serious in netball. It was just so I could hang out with my friends and do something on the weekend. Rowing was always going to be a big commitment for me because it was such a big thing in my family, but also because in general, it's the kind of sport that you don't really have an easy option for. There's not a social version of rowing. I was on a lot of social teams where you would practice once a week and then you have a game, but in rowing, you have to train six days of the week. I think it just naturally became a big part of my life because you spend a lot of time with the team and you spend a lot of hours just for that one thing. I think from the start, it was always a big thing in my life. It was the first thing I actually tried hard for, I'd say. I had to have mental strength for it."
What led to your decision to pursue NCAA rowing as opposed to staying in New Zealand and trying to make the national team?
AE: "As I started rowing, I noticed lots of the older girls would go off to universities in the U.S. I guess that was what sort of first brought my attention to it. I thought about the New Zealand pathway and I think I just had a lot of setbacks. It became apparent that you have to really be lucky with being a representative of a national team, particularly with rowing. If you get one terrible injury, it can throw you off your course. I felt like the U.S. university direction seemed like it was more forgiving in that sense. They take care of you.
"Personally, I felt like I wanted to build on that sense of security that I wanted. I think I worked best when I'm not in a pressured situation. I find I do my best 2K when I don't think about it all day, I just sit down and I do it. I think having stuff on my mind makes me not perform as well."
When you were researching different U.S. universities, what was it about Duke that caught your attention?
AE: "My older cousin actually went to Duke. He was a Robertson Scholarship [recipient]. We know each other easy enough, but I wouldn't say we were tight. But the universities that I really looked at were the ones that I had heard of, and because of that I had heard of Duke. I looked at a few other universities and I just thought that the comradery around sport was quite exceptional compared to other universities. It met all criteria for me. It had that community sort of vibe and it seemed like the student-athletes were really respected.
"I noticed here that it seemed like you had a lot of well-rounded students that weren't necessarily extremely academic, but really brought something different to the table. There were a lot of things."
Were you nervous about going to college in a different country?
AE: "I didn't really think about it for a while. It was sort of this thing that I was doing, but I didn't think about the actual experience. I finished my school in the summer of 2018, but our summer is in December. So, I finished in December, then I had almost a year of training and working. It was this thing that was sort of in the distant future for a while. It really hit me maybe two weeks before I was leaving and then it was like 'I'm not going to see all these people for a while,' and 'I'm going to move into a different country,' which was going to be strange. Part of me was excited and part of me was, knowing that I was going into a team and would immediately have that support network, was really helpful for me. I think it was what sort of eased my mind when I got nervous."
Did you face a culture shock when you first arrived on campus?
AE: "Slightly. I would say that we would find different things offensive to people here. I would say things and it wouldn't have any connotations behind it for me, but for other people it would. I could learn the different things that you should and shouldn't say, even if it was well-intentioned. Just because we've got different histories and different ideas, and we've had our own different setbacks as countries, there's different topics that bring up emotion, for sure.
"In general, I noticed that I did not know any American history compared to anyone else. Other than that, not really. Everyone was pretty welcoming. I had worries that being international, people might feel like they don't know how to interact, but I just noticed that I didn't feel like I was seen as a foreigner."
How long did it take for you to get a sense of the team chemistry?
AE: "Even when I did my official visit, I couldn't tell who was in what year group because everyone was so tight. I really like it because I think you can pick and choose what you do with the squad and how involved you get socially. I think they're all willing to sort of have their own friends outside of the squad, but also come together and really bond and be a tight-knit community. I think most of the squads I've been on in general have been quite similar there. It was definitely noticeable how there was no year group difference in friendships, because in high school, I'd say you definitely still were rowing with your year group a lot and you were friends with most of your year group.
"I definitely think at Duke, it was noticeable how when freshmen come in, it takes them about two weeks to make really good friends with sophomores, juniors and seniors. I really think they are quite welcoming."
#GoDuke
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