Q&A: Sara Hendershot '10, 2012 Olympian

Sara Hendershot ’10, a standout rower at Princeton, came in fourth place at the 2012 Olympics by an incredibly slim margin and is now getting ready to compete one more time at that level in Rio de Janeiro next year. The Daily Princetonian sat down to talk with her about her journey from college to now, and how she’s approaching her chance to claim an Olympic medal.

Daily Princetonian:You played many sports in high school, but how did you know you wanted to commit full-time when you got to Princeton?

Sara Hendershot: The way that worked was rowing was the one that gave me the opportunity to compete in college. I originally wanted to swim in college but I had a shoulder injury that made it so that I wasn’t going to be able to make it four years. I did well in high school with rowing — I might have been able to go to a [Division] III school if I played soccer, but I looked at the opportunities I had and they were better with rowing … It wasn’t until I got here that I really fell in love with the sport, and that was because of [head] coach Lori Dauphiny: she really developed that passion in me. It was really after my sophomore year here — we had a disappointing season — that I fully committed to the sport, getting better at it and trying to make the team better.

DP:Speaking of disappointing seasons, Princeton had a really good 2006 season, before you got here, and in 2007 and 2008 there were ups and downs. You ended your career with a very good 2010 season. How was it going through tough years and keeping yourself from being discouraged in order to make yourself get better and have the great season you ended your career with?

SH: It’s funny – I was sandwiched by two national championships and I didn’t get to be part of either one of them. One was in 2006, the other in 2011. As I came in in 2007, I didn’t really know what the team had been like the year before. You could feel that there was a sense of disappointment in the group, but I was more learning from the older girls, and seeing their expectations and their standards were higher and that was going to be expected of me as a Princeton Tiger as well. 2008 was tough because it was [one of] the worst finishes we had on that women’s team in a while. I can’t remember another one that was that tough of a season. Basically, the way I made it through that was just deciding “I’m going to control what I can control,” and that is myself and my own performance, and also doing my best to create a culture where people want to do the same. I spent that summer after my sophomore year just crushing myself in the gym, getting fitter and getting stronger, getting ready to come back in the fall so that I was in a good place to contribute to the team going forward. A lot of my teammates jumped on board with me, because when you have disappointment either you can sulk in it or you can decide to make a difference and change. We decided to do that together. You can see the team upswing in 2009, and it started to click more in 2010, which I believe led into the 2011 season as well. It was about leaning on your teammates.

DP:When did you feel that the Olympics, or competing at a high level on the international circuit was a possibility for you?

SH:One of the really cool parts about the Princeton rowing team is that the U.S. National rowing team is also located in Princeton. You have a close tie to that Olympic group because you see them on a day-to-day basis. I would see the national team girls in the locker room every day when I was showing up for Princeton practice, and it made it feel more tangible. It made it feel like, “These girls can do it, I can do it, too.” … Once I graduated and joined the team, I could sort of see where my place in the group was, and I slowly started to improve. So when I was on the national team, my goal was London or bust.

DP:Could you tell me more about how you met your [rowing] partner, Sarah Zelenka, and what the difference is between rowing in a boat of two versus rowing in a boat of four or eight?

SH:It’s very different. You have that one other person to depend on, and because of that you really end up developing a deeper and more special bond than you do in bigger boats. And there’s something super fun about racing in an eight or a four, and I’ve done both of those — we raced eight’s at Princeton. You have other teammates with you; it feels like a big team. But with that one other partner, you learn a lot about that other person, and Sarah and I learned a ton about each other. She’s going to be in my wedding this fall; I was in her wedding a couple years ago — you just get that close with them that you really would do anything for that other person. I think what made my relationship with Sarah so special was that even when rowing wasn’t going great, we put our friendship first, and that would always lead us back to better rowing. I don’t know whether that’s just me as an individual. I know not all athletes are like this, but when there was that emotional connection we were actually able to perform better.

DP:When you were in your qualifying race to get to London, you were the underdogs going in. Did you feel you had a chip on your shoulder when you actually got to London?

SH: Once we got to London, honestly it felt like no pressure. Nobody had any expectations for us. There weren’t any write-ups on us internationally, [and] nobody was saying ,“The US is going to be a huge competitor.” We were like, “Awesome. We’re going to sneak in here [and] do whatever we can to surprise people.” That made it really fun. I felt like an underdog when I was in London. We almost pulled off a sneak attack medal, but that made it a really fun experience because we went into it realizing whatever happens, we were going to be pretty happy because getting there was a huge deal.

DP:Can you say how London was as experience, besides the competition?

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SH:It was amazing. I’ve heard a lot of our girls talk about the Athens or the Sydney or the Beijing Olympics, and it sounds like each one has been special and unique in its own way. But London did an incredible job of putting this thing on. It was so organized, it had so many volunteers that you couldn’t turn a corner without a London volunteer telling you where you should go or what tube stop to get off on. Everything was labeled really well, you could easily get to venues. It was easy since it was an English speaking country. In general … it was really cool for us because we were done after the first five days. It was the opening ceremony, five days of competition, and then we had a week and a half where we could go explore, go out to parties and go see the other athletes compete. That was really cool because then [we] could just go support [our] other USA teammates and actually be a part of the Olympic Village. I think London did a killer job, and it’s going to be hard to top it.

DP:Looking more to the present, can you talk more about what you’ve done differently for 2016 versus 2012, and also how finishing in fourth by such a slim margin motivates you for the coming year?

SH:That’s definitely what got me to commit for another cycle, that fourth place. I went home after returning from London and watched the race again, and realized after watching the film how much more potential I had, and how I was just starting to break into the surface of that during that race. I just started thinking to myself, “If I can get that close, and I don’t even feel that I’m close to my potential, I’d rather give it another shot.” But this cycle’s been very different for me, because I’ve been pretty injury-laden. I spent all of 2013 and part of 2014 out because I was hurt. That led me to my latest adventure, which has been spending 2014 and up to now in California, trying a different strategy of training, and basically putting my body mechanics first before physiology, and trying to work on skill more so than just working the machine. It has been a very different experience because I have not been part of a world championship team yet this cycle, and now we’re entering the Olympic year. This is my last chance — I’m hoping to take what I’ve learned over the last few years and apply it to the year that matters the most. It’s going to be exciting. I’m not sure what to expect and I’m going to give it everything I have.