With students from 100+ countries with extremely diversified backgrounds and experiences, it’s no surprise that EHL is a school full of some of the most gifted and talented students. More particularly, some of our talented students consist of students that have managed to combine top-level sports with a university degree.
Meet three of some of our spectacular students:
Sofia Meakin
Sofia has been rowing for 6 years and only joined the Junior Swiss team 3 years ago. Currently, Sofia is part of the Under 23 team and has personal aspirations to advance to the Elite team before the 2020 Olympics. According to Sofia, a rowing race is 2000 m, which takes around 5-8 minutes depending on the boat class and the weather conditions.
“That means that the effort is a combination of sprint and endurance
– It’s what makes the training so hard but so various!”
Here are some of Sofia’s latest achievements:
- 5th at the world rowing championships U23 in the lightweight single scull
- 2nd at the european championships U23 in the lightweight double scull
- 1st at the redbull xrow in the swiss coxed 8+
- 1x swiss champion, 1x silver medallist and 6x bronze medallist at the Swiss championships in different boat categories and indoors rowing
- 2019 World Champion with Eline Rol, in the Olympic category (23 years double light weight), in Florida
Even with these, Sofia manages to find a balance between juggling EHL while being a part of the Swiss team with good self discipline and organization. In fact, EHL has shown to be very supportive of its students partaking in such intensive activities, allowing Sofia to enjoy both the student life and her dedication to sport by splitting a single semester into two semesters.
Image Credits to World Rowing
Aurélie Rytz
Aurélie has been part of the Swiss horse riding (jumping) team for 6 years. She placed third at the Swiss championships two years ago, and placed fifth just this year. Furthermore, Aurélie participated twice at the European championships which included only four of the best in each country both this year and last year. With stables located only 10 minutes away from EHL at Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Aurélie finds the time to juggle school with her horse riding practices and has been participating more in Swiss competitions rather than inter-regional competitions.
“I want to keep my level as it was before EHL and I’ll do everything possible to achieve this goal. I would like to participate to the Europeans once again next year as it’s my last year as a young rider.”
Image Credits to La Côte
Julie Gaudin
Julie was introduced to the world of rugby only after joining the EHL women’s touch rugby committee. She was playing touch rugby from her preparatory year to the 2nd year of EHL until her and a friend went to train at a women’s team in Lausanne city. From this experience, Julie fell in love with the training so much that she continued to play with the team there and by the end of the semester, had an invitation to go to the selections for the XVs national team – She only then played her first game with the national team against Germany at the beginning of her third year at EHL and quickly then joined the Swiss national rugby team as flanker earlier this year.
What I love about rugby is that it is a social game. When you are part of a rugby squad, you’re part of a family. Then the game ends, you and your teammates will go to drink and have fun together. Whatever your age, gender or sexuality, rugby is a sport for anyone. Even within a single team you can find a huge mix of ages, heights and weights. In no other sport in the world can you find such a jumble of players who all seem to get all along so well.
How does Julie keep up with her school work while balancing such an intense sport? “Since this semester, I am part of a new elite athlete program at EHL. This program helps me to catch up when I am abroad and my friends help a lot by sending me their class notes.”
Image Credits to Julie Gaudin
