Zoë Lee (Geography, 2004)
Zoë had two ambitions for 2016: to complete her PhD and make her Olympic debut. She achieved both, passing her PhD in March and winning silver with the women’s eight at the Rio Games.
At 16, I was looking forward to sixth-form college, where I was going to study options to set me up for a career in sports physiotherapy. But during my first year at sixth form college, I decided I was more interested in playing sport than learning about it, and I was finding geography and geology to be much more engaging academic subjects. This led to a series of decisions that ultimately changed my life. I got some really good results on my AS levels, so the sixth-form college principal suggested I consider applying to Oxford or Cambridge. I visited Hertford, which coincidentally was holding its open day, and was ushered in to meet the geography tutors despite not being enrolled for a visit. Straight away, I knew this was the college I wanted to apply to. Without studying at Hertford, I wouldn’t have started rowing, and without that I wouldn’t have become an Olympic silver medallist.
I was determined to get a Blue in netball. But after watching my friends race in Summer 8s, I realised I wanted to row, too. My desire to be in the top boat by Summer 8s saw me balancing work with university netball, college rowing and the university development squad rowing in my second year. For me, rowing was a really different type of team sport. Whereas in netball we all played specific positions, which require different skills and attributes, in rowing the most important component is the synchronicity of movement and effort.
In my third year at Hertford, I found myself on a field trip to Tunisia for my BA Geography course. I had never studied deserts before, so I found it a fascinatingly different environment. I vividly remember standing on the top of a sand dune and looking around and all you could see was sand – and I wanted to learn more! That experience that without doubt made me determined to pursue a PhD looking at one of the fundamentals of desert science, the movement of sand grains by the wind.
At the start of the GB trialling process, I was a student first and foremost and an athlete on the side. This changed significantly when I was invited to train with the senior team. I needed to be available all day, every day to train with the squad. My research had to be crammed into rare days off, evenings and between training sessions. Although this kept me incredibly busy, and stressed at times, the two complemented each other well. It was never possible to fixate too much on one or the other, which I think was healthy for my mind! During the 2015-2016 season, the balance between the two was incredibly hard, as I had a very firm deadline for handing in my PhD and the testing and trials came thick and fast for the Olympic team. But thankfully, I was ultimately successful in achieving both my personal goals for 2016, and it was quite the poetic ending when I found out that I had passed my PhD on the same day that I helped qualify the British Women’s eight for the Olympic final.
Some of my fondest memories were forged during my years at Hertford; I met some amazing people and made some fabulous friends. What I think makes Hertford special is that the sense of community is absolutely college wide and, for me, this is unique. When I decided to apply to Hertford, I knew that the interview process would be tough and that hundreds of equally able students would be applying for a place. But instead of letting this unnerve me, I tried to show the interviewers my personality and demonstrate that even if I didn’t have all the answers I was intrigued and wanted to learn. My advice to future students would be: believe in yourself and enjoy the ride – you never know where life might take you and it is much more fun if you’re enjoying every moment.