Devi Lockwood: Rowing for Syria 

This blog is written by Devi Lockwood—Ideas Editor at TIME Magazine, author of 1,001 Voices on Climate Change, and a Syrian American rower currently pursuing a goal to qualify for the LA 2028 Olympic Games. Read on to learn how her drive to represent the resilience of the Syrian people, honor past athletes, and inspire future generations has transformed her journey into something far greater than personal achievement. 

A year ago, I was adrift. My job at a newspaper in Philadelphia had been eliminated as part of a larger staff cut, and I was experiencing, for lack of a better term, a dark night of soul. 

There are only so many hours one can apply to jobs in a day, so I took to riding my bicycle along the Schuylkill River and watching the rowers go by. I had been a rower once, but I didn’t think that I would ever come back to the sport. Life had taken me in other directions.  

I learned to row in high school at the suggestion of Melissa Victoria King, a student of my mom’s. I fell in love with the daily practice, the many moods of many rivers, the ways I could steadily improve, the rhythm of a team pulling hard in one direction.  

I was recruited to row at Harvard and by the time I graduated in 2014, I was burnt out from the sport. I put down the oars and hopped on my bicycle on a mission to document 1,001 stories from people I met about water and climate change in 20 countries on every inhabited continent. I wrote a book. I started a career in journalism. I trained for marathons and joined a master’s swim team and learned how to do a flip turn. I didn’t look back.  

After my last day in the office at the newspaper, I walked into a climbing gym thinking that I would try a new project, but an old friend, Concept2 Erg, was calling. The flywheel was full of dust. I sat down and picked up the handle, and my body was transported to my first ever day of rowing practice, 17 years earlier in 2008, when Coach Liz Trond said to me: “Imagine the faces of your enemies in the foostretcher. Now push.”  

Half an hour later, I was sweaty and reached some kind of calm.  

A few weeks after that, I was riding my bike upstream on the Schuylkill as a race of eights went by. Even though I didn’t know anyone competing, I pulled off the bike trail and into the grandstand to cheer, because that seemed like the thing to do. I turned next to me and saw another rower. The intensity in me recognized the intensity in her.  

“Where do you row?” I asked.  

She told me that she is half Puerto Rican and training to qualify for the LA2028 Olympics.  

“I’m half Syrian,” I told her.  

“You should train with me,” she said.  

I eased back in, first rowing with the masters at Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association, then walking on to the high-performance group. I put up a Syrian flag in the woman cave of my basement where I would train and put in extra meters on the RowErg and BikeErg whenever I could. I got back in touch with my favorite coaches—Sally Morris, Lou Berl, Linda Muri, Michiel Bartman—to share videos of my technique and to ask for advice. I learned how to do beach sprints at a development camp in New Jersey hosted by Marc Oria.  

It became my goal to qualify Syria’s first ever boat for the Los Angeles Olympics. There are a few pathways to qualification. For flat water, I’ll need to get top five at the Asian Continental Qualification Regatta, which will happen in late 2027 or early 2028. There are also two universality places. For beach sprints, I’ll need to get top two at the Continental Qualification Regatta. There is one universality place. Syria had six athletes at the 2020 Olympics and 6 athletes at the 2024 Olympics, which means I would be eligible for a universality place as a last resort. But my goal is to qualify straight through. 

I am pursuing this goal for three reasons:  

1. To show the pride and resilience of Syrian people and the Syrian diaspora  
2. To honor Syrian athletes like Ghada Shouaa, Syria’s only Olympic gold medalist who won heptathlon in 1996   
3. To inspire the next generation and current Syrian athletes 

Rowing has changed my life for the better in 1,001 ways, and I want those opportunities to be available to more Syrian people. I might be the first Syrian rower competing internationally, but I don’t want to be the last.  

Ahead of my first international race this spring, a friend sent me an episode of the podcast Mentor Buffet in which Greek Olympian Alexi Pappas interviewed Olympic champion cyclist Kristen Faulkner. One big idea stuck with me. When choosing a big goal, Kristen said, she focuses not on the outcome, which is out of her control, so much as the person she’ll become in the process.  

In pursuing this goal, am I becoming the person who I want to be? The answer is yes, over and over again.  

The journey to row for Syria has brought me to beautiful places so far. In April, I competed in Copa América in Lima, Peru, where I went the wrong way around a buoy and officially DNF the beach sprint race, and then turned around and won two silvers for Syria in the 6km and 23km endurance events.  

In May, I raced at the IV Campeonato Americano de Beach Sprint in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica, where I finished in the top half of a competitive field of national teams who have been racing beach sprints for years.  

And as with most great journeys, it’s the people who make it all worthwhile. My teammates at Penn AC’s high-performance group push me to row faster every day. Jasper Liu’s eye for technique is unmatched. The Next Level Rowing beach sprints squad led by Marc Oria is full of joy. Fernanda Ferreira of Brazil is now my favorite rower; we raced together in the 6km race in Peru, and she asked to swap unis after. I proudly wear a team Brazil uni with her name on it for free speed. Fernanda has been racing internationally since the 2016 Olympics in Rio and had a young son at the time. She told me that becoming a mom made her faster, because she was no longer training just for herself.  

To my great joy, Syrian athletes have started to reach out to me, too, some of whom are rowers. I am hopeful that we can form a team boat in the future. Representation matters. I don’t think I understood that fully until I saw photos of Ghada Shouaa racing for Syria. She looks like me. When I see her success, I know that I can put my full self towards this goal, too.  

Whenever I feel doubts, I connect back to my why. The larger purpose anchors me. It would be easy to stop rowing if I were rowing just for myself. But I’m never truly alone. It’s one big boat. Every single person who has supported me is a part of that team. 

Here’s to the future of Syrian rowing.