Erika Sloan, a sophomore rower at Middlebury College, fulfilled a lifelong dream this winter when she participated as a contestant on Jeopardy. With the support of her family, and teammates, she won the first round and made it to the semifinals of the College Championship—and got to chat rowing with Alex Trebek.

When did you start rowing?

I started rowing at Simsbury High School in Connecticut. I rowed there for four years and was captain my senior year. When I got to Middlebury I decided to continue rowing—it’s a club team so it's just a walk on team. I joined my first day of college and plan to continue for all four years.

What was it that made you want to be on Jeopardy?

I grew up watching Jeopardy every night after dinner and I always wanted to be on it. The more I watched and the older I got, the better I did playing along at home. I took the online test for the College Championship last March, and I got an email about a month later letting me know I was accepted for an in-person audition. I got the email while I was on my training trip with the team in Georgia; we didn't have great internet so I didn't get the email until it was almost too late to respond, and I realized I had a race in Maine vs. Bates the day of the audition in New York City, so I emailed them and told them I was really sorry but I have a major conflict—and they were really chill about it, they asked if I could come the day before.

A teammate and I drove down from Vermont to New York City on Friday for the Saturday audition and then drove directly up to Maine to join the team for the race on Sunday.

What was it like being on the show?

When I got to the studio everyone was trying to get to know each other but not give too much away. All the contestants were a little wary of one another at first, which is funny because we're all very close now and keep in touch. We all bonded by the craziness of the experience.

Once it was time to get on stage I thought I would be really nervous, but I wasn’t. I had a lot of trouble with the buzzer at the beginning, which is why it seemed like I had a slow start—so to come back at the end was a relief.

It was great when I got to talk to Alex about rowing because at that point I wasn't doing too well. Alex came back to talk to us during the commercial break, and we had submitted 5 stories we could talk about and Alex just picked one to talk about. I was very pleasantly surprised that he asked knowledgeable questions about the sport. After the craziness of 'Oh my gosh I'm playing Jeopardy!' it was calming to be able to talk about something so common in my life; even though I was talking to Alex Trebek. It was a really cool moment to know I was talking about rowing on national television.

Do you think being a competitive athlete gave you an edge over other contestants?

I think so, in the sense that I am on a club team now and in high school I was on a public school team that raced a lot of faster private schools—the come from behind win is something I have done a lot in races.

My coach made an allusion to "taking it all in the sprint" - clearly it was a slow start.

Knowing what it is like to lose - a lot of the kids that don’t have as much athletic experience don't know what its like to lose. I was able to keep calm; everything can change just like in a race. My rowing experience helped keep me calm and to know that it's not over until it's over.

What did it feel like making it to the semifinal round?

Going into the semifinal round I felt a lot less pressure because I had won the first round and I hadn't made a complete fool of myself—I made Middlebury and my friends and family proud. I had much less of a slow start and was in the thick of it for most of the game and finished in a very close second. It was disappointing and a little frustrating because it was so close, but I had a stronger game.

I had a lot more fun during the second game and I was excited to be realizing my dream.

What was the reaction of your teammates and classmates at Middlebury?

Everyone was extremely supportive, and even when I had the audition everyone was really excited for me and wanted me to go for it. When I got back to school I had missed the first week of our January term, and we had an official lunch with the team that weekend and everyone was asking me about it.

There was a viewing of the show in the student center and a lot of people came including some people I didn’t know, but the majority of the team went and it made me feel really supported and encouraged. It made me feel great to have the support of my team. Plus I wanted them to hear me talk about rowing.

What is Alex Trebek like?

We don't get to interact with him much before the game and there is security surrounding our contact with anyone who knows the material. The first time I saw him was when he came out to do the introduction.

When he came over to the podium my first interaction with him was when he was talking to me about rowing. It was cool because I was hoping he wouldn’t say something like "You must have really strong arms!" I didn't want to have to correct him. They cut out some of what he asked me, because he asked if I rowed in 8's or 4's, and the producers didn't think it was relevant for most viewers. I was just really excited that he knew about rowing.

He seemed warm and friendly; he has a reputation for being condescending to contestants but I didn’t get that impression at all. When I was pretty far behind he made a comment like, 'let's see if the sophomore can catch up with the seniors!' giving me an out—and I felt really encouraged throughout the game even though we didn't get to talk much.

You can watch Erika's quarterfinal and semifinal games here on row2k.