Liam Corrigan graduated from Harvard in 2019 and is currently set to race in the United States M8+ at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
1. What inspired you to go to your first rowing practice; was there anything memorable about it?
I started rowing in the first place because my high school JV basketball coach was also our school's head rowing coach. He saw that I was tall and must have realized that I wasn't going to go too far with basketball so he wanted me to come out for crew. At the time I wanted to play lacrosse, or maybe track, because frankly they both seemed a lot more fun than rowing, but a few of my friends were rowers and my coach managed to convince me to get in a boat. That year there were only 3 guys on the entire team who weren't complete novices, so I ended up being in the Varsity 4+ with them pretty much from day one, which was a great way to start rowing because I learned so much so quickly.
2. Was there a practice, race or other event when you fell in love with the sport, or when you knew you might not be too bad at rowing? When you thought you could make the national team?
The first time I thought I had a chance in the sport was my sophomore winter of high school, and was a bit of an accident. The head coach of the US Junior Team at the time, Steve Hargis, happened to live a town over and knew my coach. He was one port rower short at a winter High Performance camp that was happening in Orlando with a bunch of guys who had rowed for the Junior National Team that summer. So I got an invite to that camp basically out of chance, despite having only rowed for 8 months at that point. But when I got there I was in the middle of the pack on the ergs, and the boats I was in weren't going too bad either, so that gave me some confidence in pursuing rowing more seriously.
Regarding the national team, I was aware that it was a possibility from my sophomore year of college onwards when I rowed with a guy who just competed for South Africa in the Rio Olympics, Vince Breet. Although I wasn't at that level at the time, it gave me a clear idea of what the next tier of the sport was and that I wasn't too far off from it. I've definitely had national team aspirations since then.
3. Best race/practice, worst race/practice?
The worst race I had was at the Youth Olympics in the 2- in Nanjing, China in 2014. I had just competed at Junior Worlds in the 8+ and I was rowing the pair with another guy who had raced in the 4-. We hadn't rowed together all summer, and on top of that this was both our first ever race in a 2-. Part of that meant that I had never really steered a 2- before, so I had about one week between Junior Worlds and the Youth Olympics to learn how. I remember being incredibly nervous before the first race which was a seeding race, although I managed to steer alright and we had a decent race.
But in the next race, the heat, I hit about 20 buoys, while pinballing back and forth across the lane. We ultimately finished 10 seconds behind the 5th place boat, Egypt, and in their lane (mind you, this was only a 1000m race, so that's 5 splits). I never understood the expression "shaking with rage" until I saw my pair partner after that race. Needless to say it was quite devastating, but we managed to finish the regatta with a decent result.
Best race may have been winning the Champ 8+ at HOCR in 2019. The Charles is always such a fun race, and we managed to win despite being a fairly young and quickly put-together crew, so there was a lot of excitement around that result.
4. Best/Anything you've done in the sport no one knows about?
I actually have rowed in Tokyo before. My family visited Tokyo in 2015 and while we were there I went to the 1964 Olympic course and went for a paddle in a 2- with one of the athletes from the 1988 Japanese Olympics 8+. There was a bit of a language barrier between us, but we rowed pretty well together, and it was really fascinating to see their rowing culture. The course they have reminded me of Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, where there are a ton of prestigious boathouses lined up next to one another. It was a pretty memorable experience, and I'm really excited to return to Tokyo!
5. Any/Most important advice for young rowers?
My advice for young rowers would be to have as much fun with the sport as possible and to try to enjoy spending time with your teammates. For me, even today, my favorite part of the sport is spending time with other people on the team on and off the water. It's important not to take things too seriously when you're a young rower, because it can be easy to get burnt out in this sport, as its so repetitive, and I think if you're having fun it's actually much easier to work hard than if you're miserable. Of course you do need to work hard too if you really want to go fast!
Hometown: Old Lyme, Conn.
Club Affiliation: Oakland TC
Date of Birth: September 11, 1997
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 205
High School: Lyme-Old Lyme High School
Education: Harvard University
Training Location: Oakland, Calif.
Current Coach: Mike Teti
National Teams: Five - Junior, 2014-2015; Under 23, 2017, 2019; Olympic, 2020
International Results: Finished seventh in the four at the 2019 World Rowing Under 23 Championships...Finished fourth in the pair at the 2017 World Rowing Under 23 Championships...Finished fifth in the four at the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships...Finished eighth in the pair at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games...Finished ninth in the eight at the 2014 World Rowing Junior Championships.
National Results: Won the pair at the 2020 USRowing National Selection Regatta...Won the pair at the 2017 Under 23 World Championships Trials... Stroked the second varsity to an undefeated 2017 season, winning the the Eastern Sprints title...Won silver in the four with coxswain at the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships.
Personal: Corrigan was born on 9/11/1997 and attended Lyme-Old Lyme High School. He enjoys playing and listening to music, as well reading Russian literature and rock climbing. He will be attending Oxford in 2021 to pursue a masters degree in finance.
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