Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 47

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training for gold
by Eric Joseph Rubio ’11

This World Rowing Championship
gold medalist has her
sights set on the 2016 Olympics.

By 6:30 a.m.,

Emily Huelskamp
’09 is already hard at work.

to see the possibilities for rowing
beyond her college years.

But her rowing career has not been
all wins. Last summer, Emily was
the last person cut from the U.S.
squad for the 2014 World Championships.

Immediately following graduation,
she moved to Boston to pursue a
master’s degree in sports psychology
and also joined a high-performance “I was devastated,” she says. “I could
club rowing team. By this time, her not understand some of the reasons
goal was to receive an invitation to why I had not made the team, and I
train with the U.S. national team. could not understand why God had
In the fall of 2012, after she finished
me training if I was only going to
The journey began with the closeher master’s degree, the invitation
miss the cut.”
knit community she found in crew
came, and Emily moved to Princat Wheaton.
eton, New Jersey, home of the U.S. With faith, hope, and perseverance,
she continues to train for both the
Rowing Training Center.
“The people of Wheaton Crew were
next World Championships and the
fantastic,” Emily says. “It really In August 2013, she and her team2016 Olympics. Her disappointmakes it exciting when you enjoy mates represented the United States
ment has become a means for reachthe people you’re training with.”
at the World Championships in
ing out to other teammates.
South Korea, where they won their
As a junior, she decided to try an
“It has also allowed God to show me
indoor rowing contest in Chicago. event.
yet again how He is in all things—
Once her scores posted, she received “We surprised everybody by wineven the confusing, hurtful situaa call from a summer rowing devel- ning the race for lanes,” she says,
tions,” Emily says.
opment camp in Washington D.C. adding that during the competition,
Though she’d already lined up an
though Canada “went out fast,” her Rowing at such an elite level
internship that summer, the 6’2’’ team was able to “row through
requires a serious time commitapplied health science major began
ment. Practices take place in three
them” for the win.
When Emily joined Wheaton’s crew
team sophomore year, she never
anticipated that five years later she’d
be training for five to six hours
almost every day in the hopes of
rowing for Team USA at the 2016
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

W H EA T O N . ED U / M A G A Z I N E

sessions—two in the morning and
one in the afternoon.
“Most of the remaining time is spent
recovering for the next workout:
eating, sleeping, and doing physical
therapy,” she says.
To make ends meet, rowers often
board with host families.
“I could not train at this level without
my host family’s generosity,” Emily
says, adding that she’s lucky enough
to have flexible work.
She also sets time aside for weekly
Christian community at Stonehill
Church in Princeton, and now has
several teammates coming to church
with her—something she hopes will
continue.
“I have come to believe that this is my
mission field,” she says. “My rowing
is completely about and for Christ
and His Kingdom. He has given me
this gift, and I try to make it part of
worship.”
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