PULLING IT TOGETHER: Claire Collins, second from right with visor, shows her form while rowing for the U.S. women’s 8. Former Princeton University women’s open crew standout Collins ’19 will be competing in the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics for the U.S. 8. It will mark the second appearance at the Olympics for Collins, who helped the U.S. 4 take seventh at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. (Photo by Row2K, provided courtesy of USA Rowing)

By Bill Alden

For Claire Collins, making the U.S. rowing team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 marked a career breakthrough.

“It was pretty eye-opening, it was also the first senior national team that I made,” said Collins, a 2019 Princeton University grad who helped the Tigers earn four Ivy League titles during her college career and won the Otto von Kienbusch award as Princeton’s top senior female athlete.

“I had done the junior national team, I had done the U23. The Olympic team in 2021 was my first senior national team. It was also a really valuable experience as my first race on that level so I was seeing what that level was like. All in all, I would say a lot learned and great experiences.”

The experience on the water wasn’t so great for Collins as her women’s 4 took seventh.

“It was a tough Olympics because we didn’t perform quite like we wanted to,” said Collins. “So 100 percent it made me very hungry to get back.”

Remaining in the U.S. program, Collins returned to Princeton and kept training and working her way up the ladder of the national team. She finished third in the pair and fourth in the 8 in the 2022 World Rowing Championships and helped the 4 take fourth at the 2023 Worlds.

Collins has earned her way back to the Games, making the U.S. team for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.

“It feels very different this time around because I am older and more experienced,” said Collins, a 5’11, 175-pound native of McLean, Va. “I don’t take that for granted at all — it still feels very special and exciting. I feel very privileged to be a part of this team and to feel the hard work pay off. It doesn’t just take the people who made the team, it takes our whole group that has tried out over the last couple of years. For Tokyo, I was like one of the last people who made the team and made the boat. It was sort of like I really didn’t expect it as I was going through the whole process. I felt different this time. I was more in the mix now, I didn’t sort of punch through like I did last time.”

Once the top 12 women’s sweep rowers were selected for the squad, they did additional training and competing as the coaches figured out which rowers would go in the 4 and who would row in the 8 with Collins ending up in the latter boat.

“They took a couple of weeks, most of April to look at combinations for the 4 and 8 and they decided which people would go into it,” said Collins. “We didn’t even really do any direct seat racing for it. Everyone can be strong and technical and everyone is very talented. It is just like you jell with a soccer team or whatever — combinations in these boats really matter. It really helps get that next element of speed. That is what they were looking for.”

Tuning up for the Paris games, the U.S. 8 took third in the World Cup held this spring in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Lucerne was fine, we got a bronze medal,” said Collins. “We won a test race and then got bronze in the final. It wasn’t quite the finishing note we wanted. It puts a good chip on our shoulder to sharpen things up.”

Currently the rowers are training out of the Caspersen Rowing Center on Mercer Lake as they work on sharpening tunings up.

“I do feel like the 8 is coming together,” said Collins. “In Tokyo, we didn’t have a chance to race as a group before the Olympics. Lucerne was a very valuable experience. I think we are sharpening things up and there has been some really good focus, lessons learned, experiences had.”

That focus has been honed through some grueling daily sessions.

“We are doing a lot of volume right now, a lot of meters and miles,” said Collins. “We practice from basically 6:30 to 9:30 in the mornings and then we have another two to three hour practice in the afternoons plus two weight sessions a week. That is six days a week; we get Sundays off.”

Later this week, the U.S. rowers will head to Erba, Italy, to go through their final preparations before arriving in Paris. “There is a lake there, it is a nice, little quiet town near Lake Como,” said Collins. “It is very picturesque with beautiful mountains.”

Collins is looking to sample some Italian pasta as the rowers field up for the competition.

“For us, the name of the game is getting enough energy and calories,” said Collins. “There is a balance in terms of getting protein and everything like that. The biggest focus for us for nutrition is to make sure that we get enough carbohydrates. We fuel regularly. We have to make sure that we have snacks in the boat. It is getting those little bits of energy throughout the day instead of waiting for the meals.”

Looking ahead to the Games, Collins believes a key to success for the boat is harnessing its energy.

“We talk about executing a lot — it is basically executing who we are,” said Collins. “There is a process in terms of building who we are and just planning on executing that and not adjusting too much as we go along. We learned at the World Cup that we probably adjusted a little too much. It is a hard balance in trying to improve upon your little weaknesses but you also to just really have to hold on and grind into your strengths. I think the biggest key to success for us is to make sure that our strengths become more and more. We just have to solidify them into who we are, execute that, and trust that that is going to get us across the line.”

With the rowing competition taking place in the first week of the Olympics from July 27 to August 3, Collins will be looking to take care of business while still enjoying the excitement surrounding the Games.

“The rowing aspect is basically the world championships which we have been through,” said Collins. “There are a lot more people cheering, it is louder. You don’t know what that is like until you are there. The Olympics are exciting, there is time to enjoy little pieces of it even when we are racing. But at the same time, one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that you are locked and loaded. There are so many distractions. You don’t normally stay in a village with all of these different sports and countries. But the first week is very business-like. It is going to be hard because not only are there distractions in your plain view, but obviously social media is going crazy at the same time. It is fun but it can easily become distracting.”

Collins’ Princeton experience will help her stay locked in on the task at hand.

“Princeton prepared me very well for the national team and the preparation needed to make the Olympic team,” said Collins. “I am really grateful for that. Lori (Princeton women’s open head coach Lori Dauphiny) is my mentor and I keep up with her. She so special.”

While Collins is planning to keep rowing after Paris, she is going to take some time away from the sport to engage in some other pursuits.

“Next year I am going to get my MBA at Cambridge in the U.K., that is the next plan so we will see after that,” said Collins. “I would like to continue rowing at this point. I am 27 years old, I am still in my prime for this sport. I still have a few years, depending on how everything is happening. I have enjoyed every second of it but I have sacrificed a few life things I would say to do this. I would like to enjoy a few of those things a little bit before I return.”