Michelle Sechser: The Rowing News Interview

It’s hard to take a picture of Michelle Sechser in which she’s not smiling. The 38-year-old current world champion in the women’s lightweight single has raced on 13 U.S. National Teams, competed in two Olympics, and found joy throughout it all—whether the final race ended in disappointment or on the awards podium.

At 5-foot-5 and 127 pounds, she’s a natural lightweight who regularly beats larger competitors—some almost a foot taller—at the world’s biggest and most prestigious regattas, including the Head of the Charles and Henley Royal Regatta. She’s a record holder on the erg and was USRowing’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2022.

Her rowing career may have begun inauspiciously—she couldn’t complete a one-mile run without walking—but through commitment, perseverance, and faith in herself, Sechser has achieved heights that have surprised even her, and there’s no indication it’s going to end any time soon.

Rowing News caught up with Sechser as she was getting off the Charles River after a training session two weeks after winning at the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai. The two-time defending champion in the Head of the Charles openweight singles event was preparing to race against reigning Olympic champion single sculler Karolien Florijn and reigning world champion openweight single sculler Fiona Murtaugh at the Head of the Charles.

Rowing News: You raced on your first senior U.S. National Team in 2012 and since then you’ve represented the U.S. in two Olympics, won World Rowing Cup medals, and won both Henley Royal Regatta and the Head of the Charles in openweight events. How does it feel now that you’ve collected “the whole set” of medals, with a gold to go with your bronze and silvers?

Oh my gosh, even hearing you say that, and list those races, it doesn’t feel real to me, to be honest. When I’m out there racing, when I’m there on the start line in Shanghai, it still feels just as exciting and fun and nerve-racking as it did when I first did it in 2012.

What has kept me in this sport for so long is just a pure love of the sport, love of the journey, and what it’s like to set a huge goal that maybe scares you a little bit but you know is within reach if you can really execute well on the day. And just a pure love of what it’s like to have a great coach and great teammates who are pushing with you, holding you accountable, and encouraging you to break through some barriers that you’ve maybe seen before.

The main thing is it’s never gotten old. Every race feels so different and so new because the circumstances are always different, or I’m different, or your fitness is different or your boat lineup is different. It’s just been such an incredible experience to get to see so many different sides of rowing, like all the races you just listed—Henley Royal Regatta as its own beautiful beast of dual racing; World Rowing Cups, you never quite know what you’re gonna get in the field, based on people’s training peaks from other countries; the Olympics, obviously everyone’s all-in, no holds barred. Each one is so special and different and unique that it’s made for some really great moments

Rowing News: What would you tell a teenage you if you could go back in time?

There’s so much I would want to go back and tell a young teenage Michelle. The biggest one would be to not be afraid, to dream big, like really big.

I remember my novice year in high school, I started rowing at Capital Crew [Sacramento, Calif.], and our coach sent us on a one-mile warm-up run, and I could not run the full mile without walking. If I sat down with that girl and told her all the accolades that you just listed, she wouldn’t believe it. She would laugh. She would cry. She’d think it was a joke.

I wish there was a way to go back and tell her that it’s all possible, to tell other young girls that [the goals] are scary and they’re daunting, but don’t be afraid to dream because it all can be achievable. And even if it’s not, even the goals that I’ve come up short on—for example, winning an Olympic medal—it has been so worthwhile to chase those dreams.

People say it like it’s silly, “the journey is what matters.” But the pursuit is what matters. It’s hard to tell that to super-competitive people who are trying to win Olympic medals because that’s not what matters, right? The Olympic medal is what matters. But even the goals that I’ve come up short on—Tokyo and Paris—it has been so rewarding.

You become a different person when you set a goal like winning an Olympic medal. When you stay committed to it on the hard days, when you’ve got a tough coach and good teammates pushing you toward that goal month after month, year after year, when you dig deep in a training session and find out what you’re really made of — all those experiences make it so worthwhile. Don’t be afraid to chase those goals, because even if you come up short, it’s so worthwhile and it changes you. It changes you in so many ways..

Rowing News: Now that you’ve won a medal of every color and the Olympics cut lightweight rowing, will you go on to Beach Sprints, to openweight racing? What’s next?

Yes, to be honest, I would actually like to try both. I did try. I did go to the openweight selection camp this summer in Princeton. I would’ve loved to have made the women’s double. I love the double. I’ve had good experiences in the double. Molly Reckford [Sechser’s Olympic partner] and I have been able to go 6:40 in the double. I was hoping, with that skill set and speed, I’d be able to show them in camp. I just came up a little bit short against the team that’s in the group this year. I would like to try one more time to see if I can. I’d like to be a valuable member to the U.S. sculling team to make one of those boat classes go real fast.

I would also like to try Beach Sprints. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to attend any of the camps that USRowing has had so far.

It’s fun to see that the Head of Charles had their Beach Sprints, and there are new small regattas up here in New England and down in Long Beach [California] that are popping up. While I am very, very sad that that is what has replaced lightweight rowing [in the Olympic program], it is appealing and it does look like everyone’s having a lot of fun trying it, so I would like also to take a swing at that.

Home for me is Portsmouth, New Hampshire, so I’ve had the opportunity to do a good bit of ocean rowing. I’ll try to learn the sport a little bit more and work on some sand sprints and see if I can make a go of it.

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