Boat Race 2025: Cambridge University Boat Club’s Sophia Hahn charts her journey from New Jersey to the Blue Boat
Growing up, Sophia Hahn enjoyed treading the boards as part of youth theatre productions.
But now the New Jersey-born athlete is preparing to appear on one of rowing’s biggest stages following confirmation of her place in Cambridge University Boat Club’s Blue Boat for the Women’s Boat Race later this month.
Growing up on the other side of the Atlantic, the world of sport failed to captivate Hahn – despite plenty of encouragement from her mother.
Instead, she liked to act, but when the family uprooted to Henley-on-Thames due to her father’s work, the stars started to align.
The Hahns’ new residence was located just across the river from Henley Rowing Club – and this time her mother, with the intervention of Google, was not going to take no for an answer.
“I was a theatre kid before I started rowing. My mum always wanted me to do a sport. That was always the conversation when I was a kid – ‘do you want to try swimming, do you want to try soccer?’ and all this stuff, but I was never really interested,” said Hahn, who is doing an MPhil in sociology at Hughes Hall.
“We moved to England because of my dad’s job and we did that the week of the Henley Royal Regatta. We had no idea what it was all about, but people were out and about and it was a bit intriguing.
“My mum was still keen for me to join a sport and so she Googled ‘sport for tall girls’. It came back with rowing and she just said ‘how convenient, there’s a rowing club just across the river from our house’.
“She signed me up for an Easter camp and the second I got into a boat, I found it really fun and I never looked back.
“The first couple of months I was juggling theatre and rowing, but I was running from one practice to another. I had to pick one and I chose rowing. I loved it right from the start.
“What you put in is what you get out of it. I really enjoy seeing the progress that you get from it.
“You never stop learning and that’s what keeps you hooked. There’s no boundaries on how fast you can go and sometimes when you think you’ve reached your maximum speed, six weeks later after a training block you can smash that. It’s like an addiction.
“It teaches you a lot of life lessons and the community is great. It’s super big in some ways, but it also feels super small and I really enjoy seeing a lot of familiar faces.”
It was at Henley where the Boat Race first came onto Hahn’s radar.
In the weeks and months leading to the big day, Hahn would come up against Cambridge crews that were putting some finishing touches to their preparations.
And it was during those fixtures that she set herself the challenge of one day being in the position of her opponents.
“Before the Boat Race moved to the Tideway, the lightweight women and sometimes the openweight women would come down to Henley for a couple of weeks and do a couple of fixtures on the course,” said Hahn, who is a two-time Under-23 world champion with the USA.
“They would come and compete against some of our crews and I was often in those boats they would spar against.
“That was my first exposure to Cambridge because it was only them that seemed to come down to race us. It was also how I learned about the Boat Race.
“We started watching it after that and I just thought that it was really cool because you make those personal connections with the people you race against. Every year after that we’d tune in and then it came to the Tideway and that was super awesome to see that transition.
“It was something that I set myself as a goal to do one day. It has been on my mind for a long time and on a rowing bucket list to do.
“I’ve been working towards it in rowing, but also academically. I knew I needed to keep my academics up so I could go to Cambridge and do the Boat Race.
“I’ve lived in England for so long – for most of my formative years – and it’s been such a big target. To be fulfilling it, it still feels pretty surreal and I need to keep pinching myself.”
Hahn, who will sit in the four seat, will be part of a Cambridge women’s winning crew on 13 April seeking a seventh straight victory over their great rivals.
That brings with it more than an element of pressure and expectation – after all, nobody wants to be part of the Blue Boat when the winning streak comes to an end.
But under the expert guidance of head coach Paddy Ryan, Hahn is more than content to put her faith in the process.
She said: “It depends on the type of person you are. I know there are some girls in the boat that are experiencing the pressure of it.
“I see it as something that is kind of motivating because Cambridge has had this track record no matter who has been in the boat previously.
“Winning builds trust in the programme and all the training we’ve done going into the race, it feels meaningful and worthwhile. It’s tried and tested and proven.
“Obviously on race day anything can happen. I’m the type of person who is very process-oriented. I buy into the process, find the joy in that and then whatever happens on race day I’m thankful for the opportunity.
“I’ve said time and time again to my team-mates that this is an experience so many other rowers dream of but don’t get the opportunity to do, so just being part of it and lining up on the start line on race day is almost a win in itself.
“And if you buy into the process, enjoy it and trust what’s going on – we should feel happy regardless of what the result is. Of course losing sucks but for me, being part of this project is something so special.
“As long as it’s a good race and you’ve tried your hardest day in and day out, you’ve got to block out the noise. Yes the women at Cambridge have been winning and created this track record, but it’s about what we do this year and how we buy into that process.
“I feel calm about it and I’m excited about it. Everyone on the team is so hard working. We’re motivated and we trust what Paddy tells us because it works.”
