Olivia McMurray has only been rowing for seven months.
But that didn’t stop her from winning the two-kilometre junior novice category at the Alberta Indoor Rowing Championships in Lacombe last month.
The 17-year-old, who lives on a farm 12 kilometres east of Airdrie, is a first-year engineering student at the University of Calgary and joined the rowing club to help her adapt to the changing atmosphere of post-secondary studies.
“This is my first year with rowing, so it was a pretty big accomplishment,” said McMurray, a 2010 George McDougall graduate. “It feels so great and is really amazing, especially because there’s so many interesting people I’ve already met through the sport. It’s a really great sport and it’s definitely helped keep me sane through university
The provincial championship, held March 12 in Lacombe, was held on rowing machines, where you row on your own and watch your opponents on a screen. The distances are set to the machine and the competitors’ times are posted for the other athletes.
“You can watch your boat compared to the other ones, which is really hard,” McMurray said. “It’s definitely mental. You’re sitting there and you just keep trying to pull as hard as you can while watching all the numbers on the screen.”
McMurray rowed outdoors for two months, when she started the sport in September, but as part of an eight-member team. She then moved into the solo distances and said both aspects present their own challenges
“(Eights) are a lot different than rowing solo on the machine, especially being outdoors where you have to worry about temperature and current,” she said.
“But I really enjoy knowing how hard the work is, so once you finish it, you feel really proud of yourself for getting it done. And I like seeing the improvement, as I came from no experience and keep getting better.”
McMurray said she wants to continue rowing once the outdoor season begins around May 1, with the goal of making it to the Western Canada Games in Kamloops, B.C. from Aug. 5 to 14.
