By Jacob Albrecht and James Pandolfo
Elana Regan is no stranger to accomplishing her goals and overcoming obstacles. Regan, a native of Hopkinton, MA, is an Adaptive Sports New England athlete and a visually impaired rower. The story of how rowing became a passion of hers is an incredible one.
Regan’s road to becoming a rower had many stops along the way, trying out a number of sports before she fell in love with rowing.
“I tried running, swimming and volleyball. I even played softball for a little while, that was interesting” said Regan. “About a year or two ago I tried rowing for the first time. My parents had always said ‘you would be a really good rower,’ and then I tried it and I just fell in love with it.”
Rowing has been a part of Regan’s life ever since, and that is in large part thanks to the support from her family.
“My family has been very supportive of all my goals, they’re always pushing me to do my best. They always have my back. They fight for me if I need it, and it is great to have a support system,” she said, adding that while her family is a huge motivator for her, she is “just an overall pretty motivated person. I want to do better every time I set my mind to something.”
On Saturday afternoons, Regan practices at Community Rowing in Brighton, alongside her peers and under the guidance of her coaches, Hannah and Jenny. It’s at Community Rowing where Regan finds another one of her greatest support systems.
“It’s a very tight-knit community. We have fun and encourage each other in practice. The coaches and teammates are incredibly supportive.”
Community Rowing is also the place where Regan works to overcome the biggest challenges she faces as a visually impaired rower.
“Sometimes if I’m trying to keep pace with someone else, it’s hard to know at what part in the stroke they’re at because I can’t do that visually. My instructors will tell me ‘you start now,’ and I pull back and push back, and then I just try to stay in line with the person next to me” she says, adding that “The main thing I need when I’m rowing is for someone to read me what I’m doing, how many strokes I’m taking, and how many minutes it takes for me to do 500 meters.”
All of Regan’s hard work and practice over the past few months was in preparation for the C.R.A.S.H. B Indoor Championship that took place on February 17th. Regan entered this competition with the goal to beat her personal best time and finish in under 9 minutes 45 seconds. To accomplish this goal it took more than just practice, it took being in the right frame of mind.
“I did some meditation before,” said Regan. “You have to push through it, be in your own zone. Once you get halfway through, you realize ‘oh ok let’s be done soon,’ and you have to think you can do it, and just keep going.”
All of her preparation paid off as Elana beat her personal time of 9:45, “I wanted to beat my personal time, which I did. I was going for a time under 9 minutes 45 seconds, and I got 9:33.”
Achieving her goal wasn’t something Regan realized the second she finished her race. “At first, I didn’t actually know my time, and everybody said ‘oh you did great’ and I asked ‘what did I get’…when I actually found out my time I felt amazing, it was awesome. I was very tired, but I was very excited.”
When it comes to Elana’s long-term goals and aspirations, she’s not only focused on athletics, “I want to succeed academically, I want to keep my grades up, and get into a good school when that time comes. I want to have an overall balanced life, focusing on school work and outside activities such as rowing.” This attitude is what has led many athletes to have successful careers both in and out of their sports, and Regan’s approach is no different.
Elana’s experience led her to give one piece of advice to those who are looking to try sports, whether they’re visually impaired, physically impaired or not at all, “I’d say try it, there’s no harm in trying a new thing, and you never know — you could really like it or you could be really good at it. If you can’t find that thing that you’re good at on the first try just keep looking around. It took me a while to get into rowing, and if you keep looking for something you’re interested in and that you will succeed at, I have no doubt that you will find it.”
