Puerto Rican sculler Veronica Toro-Arana learned to row only two years ago - and not on the small lake in San Juan on which the national teams row, but in the basin on the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Toro (the '–Arana' is added by FISA in deference to the Latino custom of using both parents' surnames, but Veronica goes by Toro alone away from the World Championships) matriculated at MIT two years ago, and walked on to the lightweight team there. We talked to the rising junior and PUR women's single sculler on her day off from racing today.
FISA has you as Veronica Toro-Arana; do you go by your full name at home and with your friends?
Toro: At MIT I’m only Veronica Toro, easier like that.
And at home in Puerto Rico?
I’m always just Veronica Toro but my passport has both last names, so here I have both.
Where is home for you, and where did you grow up?
I was born in Puerto Rico, born and raised in Puerto Rico, and went to school all my life in Puerto Rico; my house is still there. I only came to the United States to study at MIT, and that was in September 2012. Next week I’m going back to MIT again for my third year in school. MIT is where I started rowing; before that I didn’t even know rowing was a thing. I didn’t know Puerto Rico had any rowing.
Before rowing I danced ballet for 11 years and I did volleyball for four years. When I got to college, I decided to try rowing. My first year I rowed for the lightweight team at MIT, and for the second year I switched to the open weight team. I learned about the team in Puerto Rico after I joined the MIT team. I trained with the team in Puerto Rico last summer, when I spent two months back home and I trained with them.
Where do you train there?
We trained at Laguna de Condado, it’s near Old San Juan. It's a very small place, a tiny lagoon next to the bay in San Juan.
How long is it?
It’s about 1 kilometer long. If you go out to the bay you have 2k but it’s really wavy, so there is where the team normally practices. We’re a very, very small team. Currently three people practice at home, and then I practice in the U.S. There's one other kid that’s 16, and he practices in the U.S.
Where do you practice in the U.S.?
At MIT. I only do eights at MIT, eight or four sweeping. But now I’m training for the Central America Games that are in November, so I’m going to start sculling in the afternoon because I have to keep sculling.
In Boston?
Yes, in Boston.
Are you training there in the summer?
This summer I went through a program from MIT, an internship in Brazil, so I was actually rowing. They have an Olympic lane at the University of Sao Paolo, and I was training there but by myself, and then my first competition ever in the scull was this summer when I went to Mexico for a Festival Pan Americano. It wasn’t too good of an experience because I had trained on my own, with no one correcting me or anything. Recently I went to a camp for developing countries just two weeks before this, so I’ve been here in August and they’ve been coaching me and training me. Most of what I now know about sculling I have just learned.
And now I’m here. Tomorrow I have my final E, and I hope to get first place there.
How did you choose MIT coming from Puerto Rico?
Interestingly there are a lot of Puerto Ricans at MIT, more than people know. There’s about 50 Puerto Ricans there. I knew I wanted to do bioengineering, so I looked at the schools that had that. For example in Puerto Rico, the University of Puerto Rico does not have that, so I started looking at different universities that were really good at that. What made me ultimately choose MIT was the sense of community, because I already had Puerto Rican friends that went to MIT. When I was in high school and middle school I did Math Olympics back home, so I knew them from there; they all went to MIT so I ended up there.
Are your family scientists, mathematicians?
No. My mom did computer science and my dad did industrial engineering.
How do you find balancing the workload at MIT with training - now maybe training for two boats?
It’s hard. I also want to go to medical school in two years, so I have to keep that into account as well. But I think if you keep your schedule and your life organized and focused, if you spend every hour of your day working on something that you need to work on instead of wasting your time watching TV or something, you can totally do it. Also if you see something like rowing not as work, but as something that you like as well, you don’t feel like you’re working all day, even though you are. For a typical day for me, my team practices in the morning, the open weight team, so practice is 6:30 in the morning, then I go to class, get out of class I go to lab because I work in a lab. I also tutor, then I go back and work out again and study before I fall asleep.
What do your friends and family think about you getting into rowing, and ending up here?
They’re really excited. I hadn’t seen my parents this excited about rowing before. I guess they were like oh yeah, you row – and then when I was a lightweight I got way too skinny and they didn’t like that. I think they’ve always supported me in everything that I do. Neither them nor I ever thought that I would go anywhere with any sport, I never thought of myself as a sports person. Now being able to travel and row for Puerto Rico is amazing. I never expected that and I’m super happy, super excited.
With ballet and volleyball, do you see any crossover with what you’re doing now?
No (laughs). Ballet gave me the strong legs that I have right now but that was it. I’ve never done an endurance sport in my life so that’s what I mainly need to work on now. That’s what the FISA people told me; your technique has gotten so much better in the past month, now you just need to row and row and row and row for kilometers and kilometers and kilometers and see how I end up doing.
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