When senior Courtney Diekema came to Harvard in the fall of 2009, she was focused on three things: classes, a military career, and soccer. Diekema—now one of Radcliffe’s top heavyweight rowers—never thought she would call the Charles River home.

But as a rookie goalie on the women’s soccer team, Diekema suffered from bilateral tibial sesamoiditis, a foot injury, which made running and jumping difficult.

“I was in a walking boot a lot,” Diekema recalls. “I would play for a month and be in a boot for a month. Over the summer, my doctors told me that soccer wasn’t sustainable and that I should think about stopping.”

But for Diekema, quitting soccer felt like giving up.

“[The decision] was pretty challenging,” she admits. “I had given up swimming [in high school] to pursue soccer, and giving up soccer just seemed like just another sport that I didn’t pursue all the way.”

Although the decision did not come easily, Diekema ultimately chose to walk away from the sport.

For Radcliffe heavyweight coach Liz O’Leary, Diekema’s tough choice was a stroke of good fortune for her team.

The summer before Diekema’s sophomore year, she decided to give rowing a shot.

“My mother had always wanted me to row because she heard it was good if you were tall.... In high school she tried to send me to rowing camp, but I only wanted to play soccer,” Diekema says. “Over the summer I still really wanted to do a sport, so I emailed the coaches and told them I am a 6’1” recruited soccer player and that I was interested in joining the crew team.”

Harvard soccer coach Ray Leone also reached out to O’Leary.

“Ray Leone came up to me one day and said he had a great soccer player who couldn’t play soccer anymore,” O’Leary recalls. “He knew [she was] a great candidate for Harvard when he recruited her, and we were the beneficiaries of it.”

Teaching someone how to row is not easy, but O’Leary says that, Diekema’s athleticism and willingness to work smoothed the transition.

“It wasn’t something that came to her naturally, but she worked so hard,” O’Leary says. “Miles make champions in our sport, and she has been putting in a lot of miles.”

And indeed, a champion Diekema became. In just her second season of rowing she helped lead the first varsity eight to an upset Ivy League Championship last spring, and she was named an All-American in recognition of her efforts.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if I ever thought I would be an All-American, even All-Ivy, I would have said, ‘No way,’” Diekema says.