United, Driven, and Ready. Heidi Long’s Oxford University BC

Ahead of the 80th Women’s Boat Race, Fergus Mainland caught up with Olympic bronze medallist and OUBC President, Heidi Long

As the flag drops on race day, Heidi Long will look to lead the women of Oxford University BC to a first Boat Race victory since 2016. As President this season, the Olympic bronze medallist will also set up the rhythm for her crew from the stroke seat. Under her leadership, building on the foundations that Women’s Chief Coach Allan French and previous Presidents have laid, the whole squad seems galvanised and full of gumption in a way the world hasn’t seen for some time. It’s not just the intent and aggression the crews are showing on the water, but the spirit and camaraderie that’s being displayed off the water. It’s infectious.

Both on and off the water, there’s been a steep learning curve as Heidi returns to the labs and libraries for the first time since graduating from the University of Virginia in 2019.

“I learned a lot last year, and I feel like this year, from an academic perspective, I’ve been able to embrace all of the opportunities that come out and enjoy it a lot more, rather than racing to get up to pace,” explained Heidi fresh after her fixture win against Leander.

“I’ve enjoyed being in the lab and working with my supervisor and other lab members. Once you’ve been working on a research project for a year and a half, all of the pieces that you’ve been reading and learning, all of the experiments you’ve been doing, all start to come together, and you get a really clear objective towards your aim that you set two years ago when I started to put this together.

“That’s been really exciting over the past two months, and hopefully we’ll get publications out at the end of it. It’s quite similar to rowing; you put in lots of little pieces, but right at the start, you don’t quite know what’s going to happen. Each time you complete an experiment or a race, you learn more, and you start to see this image appearing at the end of it.”

 

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The balancing act of academics and training by Boat Race athletes is well documented, but amplified further when also keeping yourself primed for national team duties.

“I haven’t always got it right. There have been times I’ve been staying up way too late to get a deadline, and then I’ll wake up not feeling great for training. But, that’s ok, we learn, we get better, and being a part of a team enables you to push through those really hard days.”

After completing the first year of her Master’s, Heidi won a bronze medal with the Women’s Eight at the World Championships in Shanghai. The transition from training at Oxford to Caversham was eased by the support network of coaches, as well as her ability to juggle all the pieces of the puzzle that make up her daily schedule.

“I’ve been able to stay in contact through the trials, and I’ve been supported in building training programmes that work for what I need. I train as much as I can, but try to balance it out. We cycle a lot in Oxford, and that’s something I didn’t do when I was training full-time. My lab is up a hill, so you cycle up the hill sometimes twice a day, depending on training and that builds up quite a training load. It’s about having those conversations to see where training needs to push on and pull back to keep performing.

“When I was at training camp with the GB Rowing Team, I was able to get ahead on a lot of my writing projects. When I came back in our break after the World Champs, I could be in the lab full time because I’d done a lot of the write-up work so it’s about looking ahead to what the year is going to be and fitting it around geographic locations as well as times of high and low stress to make sure all the work gets done in a cohesive manner.”

Support is a key theme at OUBC. Not just from the coaches, but something that is distilled across the squads as everyone pulls together.

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“I just love it all. The team is phenomenal, really phenomenal,” said the Olympic bronze medallist.

“My teammates are going to be my closest friends, and they make all of the little things; on the minibuses, training camp, racing, on the water, being in the library together, supporting each other getting work done, the team is so much fun.

“It is an absolute privilege to be President of OUBC. I have found it really hard, but I’ve loved it. Some of the things I love the most are being able to build those relationships with everyone across the team. Not only do I want the boat I’m in to go fast, but I want everyone doing the same. Be it the Reserves, the wider team, or our Development Squad, as well to really enjoy putting in the work and being a part of OUBC and build it for the future.

“Having that role has given me the opportunity to spend a bit more time and energy thinking about what OUBC is and how it will be in the future. I feel really supported by the coaching team, the wider staff at OUBC, my committee, other teammates, but also my girlfriend and my family. It really takes a village, and there’s a reason why we have Eights racing and no singles. It’s a big unit. Without that support, it would be pretty much impossible. I’m very thankful to everyone because it’s made it much more enjoyable. When it has been hard, being able to lean on someone and ask for help has been great to feel supported.”

For the women of OUBC, preparation has been strong. A 22 second win over their rivals from Cambridge University BC at the Head of the Charles Regatta lit a fuse that has been hard to extinguish. Most recently, their fixtures on the Tideway have proved crucial to the fine tuning of their engine.

There was a decisive moment in their racing against Leander Club that felt like a real coming-of-age moment. Approaching Barnes Bridge, Leander’s women were primed to take advantage of their Middlesex station, having drawn level in the minute building up to the key landmark.

However, as both boats emerged from the shadows of the buttresses, it was the dark blues who stepped on, pulling away from their gritty opposition on the outside of the bend. All season, this Oxford unit has felt different from those in previous years, but this ability to put the fixture to bed in such a decisive manner felt like a pivotal moment of growth, at exactly the right time in the season.

Across the years, OUBC have had a steady stream of athletes making the transition from university rowing to full-time training. From Amelia Standing to Juliette Perry and Martha Birtles, there was a dark blue tint to the waters in Shanghai, and it’s important to Heidi that everyone who picks up rowing can visualise this pipeline.

“We raced at Fours Head last year, and a couple of the other girls from Caversham came in, and one of them had learned to row at their college in Oxford. To have those conversations with someone who’s doing exactly the path you want to do is really inspiring. That was quite a special moment for those girls to come back in and share those stories. The time that we get to spend with each other, you start to release we are all exactly the same.

“I feel lucky to be able to join OUBC these last two years and, hopefully, have supported some of those who are going to be the future of GB Rowing because that’s what’s really cool. There is so much potential in this squad, and I really hope they start to believe in themselves and see how far they can push it. It’s not a case of waking up the next day and being ready; it takes years and years. If they can enjoy what they are doing each day here, then hopefully that can set them up, and yes, anything is possible.”

The CHANEL J12 Boat Race will take place Saturday 4 April 2026

14:21 (Women’s Boat Race) and 15:21 (Men’s Boat Race)