USRowCon23: Aquil Abdullah, Olympic & Hydrow athlete
Channel: Charlotte Pierce
Date: 2023-02-04

Aquil started out playing lots of sports as a kid, but ended up focusing on football through high school. He applied for football scholarships to colleges, but realized that he didn’t want to pursue it at the collegiate level. A few of his friends were on his high school rowing team and cajoled Aquil into trying it out. Within 3 months, he had completely fallen in love with the sport.

Aquil grew up in DC where rowing is a fairly common scene on the Potomac River. After a few months of learning, he was identified by the George Washington University coach and was recruited to row there. 

"Rowing provided me an opportunity and an outlet to push myself as hard as I was able to go… as long as I showed up every single day, I could get out of it as much as I put in. The arc for improvement was one that I had never experienced before."

#rowingpodcast #aquilabdullah