For all those who question the legacy of the 2012 Olympics, take a peek inside the Cambridge University boat when the women’s Varsity contest makes its debut on the tideway on Saturday. There, in seat No6, you will find second-year Downing College student Holly Hill, who was inspired to take up rowing after watching Helen Glover and Heather Stanning win the first British gold medal of the London Games.
With a head full of dreams Hill went online and stumbled across the same Sporting Giants talent identification programme that had recruited Glover a few years earlier. “It’s a bit bizarre,” says Hill, who also cites Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins’s gold as a major inspiration. “I ticked the boxes because I was lanky and keen to try out rowing as by then I knew I’d got into Cambridge and I wanted to row for my college when I got there.”
The 21-year-old took up sculling initially, starting in September 2013. “I spent a lot of time in icy cold water, falling in, before moving over to rowing this year.” Six months after making the switch to sweep rowing, Hill found herself picked for the Cambridge boat that is about to make history on the tideway. “It’s really momentous and such an honour to be a part of. Both Oxford and Cambridge crews, whatever the outcome of the race, understand that this event is bigger than all of us and represents much more than this battle between 18 girls.
“Whether or not I was in the boat, to be able to see this happening to the sport that I care about and for gender equality overall on a public stage is really incredible,” says Hill who credits Helena Morrissey, CEO of the women’s sponsor, Newton Investment Management, for leading on the issue.
As a young girl Hill watched the Boat Race every year on television, but it was not until she was 17 that she realised there was something missing from the annual spectacle. “I remember thinking: ‘Is there a women’s Boat Race? I just don’t know ...’ Before then I would have just watched the Boat Race, there’s just one, and they’re men. When you’re young you just accept that, you aren’t asking the question: ‘Oh, where are the women?’ You just accept it at face value when it’s not presented in the media in an equal way. Which is one of the reasons it’s so good that women are now on the tideway.”
The human social and political science student squeezes a gruelling 12 training sessions a week into a demanding academic programme that features topics such as the spread of Ebola and human evolution. “You have to be really organised because rowing does take up a huge amount of time, but rowing for me is an escape,” she says. “We train in Ely, which is about 15 miles north of Cambridge. I just love getting up early, escaping the city, going somewhere tranquil and peaceful, getting out of your head.
“I remember being sent through a provisional training plan when I first started rowing, I’d played a lot of sport at school but it was nothing compared to this – it said train twice a day, and I thought: ‘Come on ...’ I was gobsmacked at how much time I was going to have to give over to it. But if you love it enough you just do it.”
Immersing herself in a world of rowing means that Hill’s bedroom walls are covered in training plans and motivational posters, unlike some of her housemates who have original paintings by Roald Dahl’s favoured illustrator, Quentin Blake, on their walls – a Downing College alumnus being celebrated at the May Ball this year.
There is no room for distraction, says Hill, and she may be right after the Oxford women’s crew had to be rescued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution while training on the Thames last Thursday. Hill stifles a polite giggle at the mention of the subject. “We weren’t there when it happened, sadly,” she says, grinning. “But it just shows what the river’s like and we have to be very careful in terms of tides and the wind. A lesson learned for everybody, I think, that we ought to respect the river.”
The drama of the wind and waves will only add to an occasion that brings more than 250,000 people to the banks of the Thames, while this year for the first time the women’s race will also be shown on the BBC. “I’ve got a lot of nerves and excitement all rolled into one, it’s hard to disentangle,” Hill says. “On the one hand it’s really exciting and such an honour that so many people will come and watch, but the thought of embarrassing yourself in front of how many people on TV, taking a horrendous stroke in the boat makes it as exciting as it is nerve-racking.”
Oxford have triumphed in the last two outings, but Hill refuses to be drawn on the expected outcome. “Rowing is incredibly unpredictable – especially on such an unpredictable river with such unpredictable conditions, so I can’t predict if we’re going to win or lose but I’m 100% confident that we’re going to bring our A-game and give it absolutely everything – and if we do that we have a good shot at winning.”
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