For me, this moment is filled with gratitude – because, unlike the men who earned this award through an unbelievable amount of physical exertion and mental fortitude, I am here due to divine timing. I have been asked many times why I wanted to be on the men’s team and my answer was simple - if was going to cox, I wanted to be on the fastest boat. Wow, was this crew fast and I was lucky to have joined this team at the rare moment when some of the best rowers in the world came together and for that I will be forever grateful.

When I look back now on my time as a part of HUBC and this team, I am most grateful for the hardest moments, the hardest lessons. The wins have faded into a more singular memory of being undefeated national champions. But the tougher moments are the ones I learned from and that have created echos into my adult life. The lesson that unless you push yourself to a point of failure, you will never know how far you can go. That out of your darkest times come the most brilliant gifts. And, the difference as a coxswain between making noise and making impact – I could certainly make a lot of noise over the mic and by my senior year, I finally learned how to speak for impact.

I am grateful for our time with Harry, his bellow to “be persistent”, and the silence he provided to provoke us each to step up. I am grateful for Bill Manning recruiting the best and being clear that if we didn’t perform, we would lose our seats. I am grateful for being told to “Man up! We’re going backwards so whatever f—ing call you make, make it confidently”. I am grateful for all the ways I learned not to coach someone – as evidenced with gestures over the side and shirts stuffed into speakers. Grateful for being told some of my power 10 calls were terrible - I still get well-deserved grief about “as a weapon!” Grateful for those freezing cold mornings when ice would crackle as I got out of the bow-loaded four. I am grateful for being able to witness the talent of this entire team, and the sacrifices made by Malcolm and others to be the best in the world.

At one of our final dinners with Harry in New York, he said ‘you all thought it was about you, and it wasn’t, it was about the rowing’. Of course, he was right. It was about the rowing because this is a sport that pushes you not only to your physical limits, but also your mental and spiritual limits. It pushed those on this team to their perceived failure points only to find out they had more. I was a witness to those moments and will be forever thankful.