Wyatt Allen and the Pursuit of Passion

RRC Member Andy Thomson, MD interviews Olympic gold medal rower Wyatt Allen. A 2001 graduate of UVa and the men’s rowing team, Wyatt discusses his rowing career, Olympic experience, and coaching at Dartmouth College.  Read the full story.  

Olympic Modesty: Wyatt Allen and the Pursuit of a Passion
By J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., M.D.

Olympic gold medal rower Wyatt Allen speaks to members of the Rivanna Rowing Club Junior program (July 2015):

“I am fortunate to do what I am passionate about for a profession.  I told them that opportunities to pursue a passion are few and far between.  When you find it, you want to pursue it for a good long while, be it music, be it a job, even if others don’t see the value in it.  I was fortunate to find it in rowing and go after it.

At Dartmouth, many of the rowers are so worried about the future that it is hard for them to enjoy the present.  I try to tell them that the internships and the jobs will be there in the future, and that they will be much better candidates for those jobs for having rowed.”

Read the full Wyatt Allen Interview (PDF)

J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., M.D. (Andy) is a staff psychiatrist at University of Virginia Student Health Services and has a private practice of adult psychiatry in Charlottesville. He has been an active member of the Rivanna Rowing Club for over thirty years.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to friend/editors Clare Aukofer and Mary Maher for working their magic on this interview and profile.