Felix Rawlinson ’23, a recently graduated member of the men’s heavyweight rowing team, was named a second team Empacher-IRCA All-American for rowing on June 20. In 2023, the British rower was one of five members of the Big Green men’s heavyweight rowing team who competed at the 2023 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, competing for Great Britain. Having graduated earlier this month, Rawlinson will next study genomic medicine at Oxford University. The Dartmouth sat down with Rawlinson to discuss his rowing career, proudest achievements and future plans.
Congratulations on winning All-American honors for rowing. How did you feel receiving this honor?
FR: It feels like a culmination of five years spent at Dartmouth. I feel like I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve improved year to year, and it’s nice to be recognized for your efforts — especially when it’s the last year on the team. I am very happy.
You said you spent five years at Dartmouth. When were you introduced to rowing, and how did your early experiences transfer to Dartmouth?
FR: Rowing is very strong in the United Kingdom. It’s probably the best in the world. I went to one of the best schools for rowing in the United Kingdom called Radley College. At age 13, I initially thought I was going to be a rugby player, and the housemaster was the mastercharge of both — basically, he was the captain of the rowing squad. He saw that I’d signed up to do field hockey the next term, and he ripped up the piece of paper in front of me and said, ‘No, you’re doing rowing.’ And the rest was history. I got really lucky with solid development. Compared to American schools, the United Kingdom has much greater focus on technique and rowing well, so it was pretty instrumental in getting me to where I am now.
How did you adapt to the rowing team at Dartmouth, and how did the College help you become a better rower?
FR: We train really hard here. To be honest, I don’t think any amount of training at the high school level can really prepare you for it. You’re getting worked pretty hard. The first year was definitely a bit of a shock and I had to adapt a bit and get used to how intense training was, and the mileage was just all an increase from high school.
In terms of my rowing career, I rowed for the national team twice during my time at school. You basically have to earn your seat in the boat. It’s pretty intense, but you do so much racing and competitive work at Dartmouth. It sort of felt like I was ready for that, and it just put me in a really good stead. So I have a lot to thank for the program for making me more competitive.
Did you face any challenges during your last season and, if so, how did you overcome them?
FR: This past season in particular, a lot of our top guys were out with injury. One of our best guys, Jacob Hudgins ’23, had a fever at the start of the year. I felt like, to me personally, it was about becoming more of a leader this year, setting the standard and encouraging people to do extra training and buying into the culture because that’s a big thing we have at Dartmouth. Our saying is that ‘culture trumps talent,’ so it’s about always trying to stress that. I also tried to get the freshmen involved as much as we could with team building.
Is there anything from the season that makes you particularly proud?
FR: I was very proud of how we performed ahead of the trials, considering we were missing a lot of people — getting a pretty solid result while down a lot of guys was very inspiring. From a personal standpoint, I had a very solid year on the rowing machine. There’s maybe 10 or 15 people across all American colleges who break 19 minutes. It’s a very elite score to get. If you get a score like that, you’re starting to breach into the national team or Olympic level of scores. I managed to do that this winter and it felt like the result of a decade of rowing and consistent training. That was pretty special. I had to do it by myself as well. It wasn’t easy.
What are your goals for the future?
FR: I’ve just gotten into and accepted a place at Oxford University to do a master’s degree in genomic medicine. I ultimately want to get a Ph.D in gene therapy, which is sort of like using genome editing tools to correct mutations that cause disease — treating sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis. The lab I’m looking at specifically is trying to cure forms of blindness.
The other big reason I want to get to Oxford is the Oxford Cambridge boat race. It’s a very big thing in the United Kingdom. It’s watched by about 10 to 20 million people and has been going on for about 170 years now. They race each other for five kilometers along the Thames and hundreds of thousands of people will lie on the Thames to watch the race. If you’re any rower worth anything in the United Kingdom, competing in the race is on your bucket list. If I could do that one day, it would be huge.
I’m also going to try to break into the senior team and hopefully go to the LA 2028 Olympics. That’s in an ideal world. We’ll see how it actually pans out.
As an All-American athlete — and potentially even a future Olympic athlete — what advice would you give to someone looking to be better in their respective sport?
FR: It’s going to depend on the sport. It could depend on work. It can even depend on relationships. Time equals results out. More than anything, especially this year, why I broke 19 minutes and I got this amazing award was because I was just willing to put in a lot of hours. If you want to be a phenomenal world class athlete, you need to realize I’ve spent pretty much every holiday at a rowing camp. I’ve been training two to three times a day. You need to embody passion. You need to go in every day. I took a week off for the first time in three years for senior week. You have to be consistent. You have to just plug away at it and the results will come.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
