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In less than a week, thousands of members from the rowing community will traverse to the banks of the Charles River ahead of the 60th Head of the Charles — the largest multi-day regatta in the world.

“It is really an iconic race in the rowing world. And I remember just being so in awe at the whole thing. So to get to race it now, from this river that we all get to call home — it's super exciting,” Harvard-Radcliffe lightweights senior co-captain Sisira Holbrook said.

From former Olympic champions to high school teams, the race attracts a range of experience levels from competitors across the world. Harvard rowing alumni return to the waters, competing in their own alumni events.

International teams are hosted in the Crimson’s boathouses, and local businesses, from food trucks to music, will line the shores of the Charles.

“It’s in some ways, celebrating rowing,” junior co-captain of the Harvard-Radcliffe lightweights Rikke Nielsen said. “It’s one because there's always small parts of the world that do small celebrations of rowing, but Head of the Charles, seems like a big collecting point where now we all get together in this regatta to celebrate rowing, to celebrate how unique this sport is.”

For Nielsen, the celebration extends as a connection between the rowing community of Harvard and her home in Denmark.

“Even people from my hometown and from Denmark are coming, which is so fun, because they never know anything about my races over here. This is the one race they really know about,” Nielsen said.

And for Harvard’s rowing teams, it’s a chance to defend their home water. The race takes place on their own training grounds, passing by Newell and Weld Boathouse, home to the men’s and women’s rowing teams, respectively.

“Our boathouse is the direct halfway point of the course. So coming around and like seeing your family and your friends and everyone who's come out to support us is just the most special feeling,” Harvard-Radcliffe lightweights co-captain Kristine I. Schwartz said. “And we know that none of the other teams that we're racing have that.”

It’s the only time this year the team will row past its own boathouse in a competition; the spring season course takes them in the opposite direction.

Women’s Lightweights

For the first-time, the Harvard-Radcliffe lightweights have a four-class roster, and their captains said the goal remains to win, building upon their momentum from the spring season and seeking their first Head of the Charles win since losing their two-year winning streak last year. All three captains can remember witnessing a Harvard victory, signified with a crowd of Harvard supporters rushing the rowers on the dock.

“It is by far our main race of the fall, and I guess it is only a little over a month after we get back from summer,” Holbrook said. “So it is, in a way, like a beginning of the season race, but the stakes don't feel that way. We treat it as if it is like a championship.”

“I feel the goal is always to win. Obviously, that's the goal for everyone, always. But I think we have a lot of good momentum coming off of the end of last spring, we didn't graduate any seniors. We have for the first time, like, a full four class roster, so we have a lot of excitement coming in,” Schwartz added.

Men’s Lightweights

Coming off a three-year winning streak, the Harvard men’s lightweights are hoping to extend their streak to four. The team went undefeated this past season.

Senior Kyle Sutherland was a freshman when the team secured its first win of the streak. Unlike other rowing competitions, each team takes to the waters single-file for an individual trial run, meaning results aren’t revealed until all trials have completed.

“It means a lot to win,” Sutherland said. “And I want, as a senior leading the team, to put together the best lineups that we can and have a good performance on my last one.”

“My freshman year, when I came on to the squad, they hadn't had much success in the year prior. And the year prior, I think they came fourth. We put together our trained heart as always, and then we finished, and we came back to the dock. And I don't think any of us were expecting to win. And so when we found out we won, that was pretty special,” Sutherland added.

Men’s Heavyweights

Echoing the sentiments of the lightweight teams, it is clear that the desire to dominate is felt across all of the Crimson’s four squads.

“Nobody wants to be second fastest on their own home course,” said senior men’s heavyweight rower Jack Dorney. “It’s on home water which makes the stakes very high.”

Having won the collegiate event for the past two years, Dorney and his team have been raring to put themselves to the test ahead of the upcoming season.

”We’re going to have three eights in the championship event,” said Dorney. “I think the whole team is super excited to give it their best go.”

Women’s Heavyweights

Harvard-Radcliffe women's heavyweight coach Claire Ochal expressed that her team is also making huge strides in advance of the race. This year the squad is entering four eights, allowing the majority of the team to compete in the historic regatta.

“We just wanted to expand that to the whole team and have everybody have the opportunity to race,” Ochal said of the increased entries.

Head of the Charles is the largest race of the season and serves to showcase the best aspects of the sport as a whole. Ochal emphasised the importance of the race not just to the Harvard program but more specifically to the wider rowing community.

“It’s a really special race in general … it's like the Super Bowl of rowing,” Ochal said. “It’s family, its community and there is also definitely that competitive aspect of it.”

Since the summer, all teams have begun preparations for their longest competition race, in terms of distance, during their entire season. The teams will have to continuously row for 13 to 16 minutes depending on wind conditions, meaning the bulk of their training has focused on aerobic strength and familiarizing themselves with the course — a unique aspect playing to their advantage.

“If you win this thing in the fall, it's not a guarantee of winning in spring. And if you don't win this fall, it's not, it doesn't mean you can't win in the spring. So you can't take too much stock in the result,” Harvard men’s lightweight coach William C. Boyce said. “But it's good training. It's a good indicator that the training is working, that the squad has and they can learn. They can take a lot of good lessons from it on how to be prepared to compete and how to maximize their performance on the day.”

After a weekend of celebration and homecoming from the community at Harvard and beyond, the focus ultimately returns the teams’ spring seasons.

“If we have success at Head of the Charles over the weekend, then the following week, we will get right back to our training. If we don't have success over the weekend, then the plan is exactly the same,” Boyce said. “We'll get right back to our training.”

“So this will be fun. It's an event along the way that will put our best foot forward. This is not the season or the defining event. And so much as it will captivate the squad for the week of the event. I keep telling them to keep the long term and get in perspective. And this is just a step along the way towards what matters most in the springtime,” Boyce added.

And the rowers agree. Even with all the eyes on them, once the race starts — their focus shifts.

“Before you go into the race, the way I deal with the pressure, at least, is just to think of it as an honor, because it is such a privilege to get to row for this team on this course in a huge event like this,” Holbrook said.

“I think once you're like, three strokes into the race, it doesn't really feel like pressure anymore,” Schwartz added. “It's just like excitement and feeling like it's just time to do what we can do.”