PASHions
“PASHions” will highlight what ASH Clinical News readers do creatively outside
of practice. If you have a creative skill in the arts you’d like to share with ACN,
we invite you to submit your work. Whether it’s photography, essays, poetry, or
paintings, we want to provide an outlet for creative pursuits. Please send your
submission to [email protected].
In this issue, Neal S. Young, MD, talks about rowing around the world and the
Zen of an early-morning excursion on the Potomac River. Dr. Young is a senior
investigator at the National Institutes of Health and chief of the Hematology
Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Zen and the Art of
Single-Scull Rowing:
Neal S. Young, MD
Dr. Young in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
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When did you become interested in rowing?
I grew up in New York City and, because I was much
younger than my classmates, I didn’t have the
opportunity to become good at sports. In college,
we were required to take some type of physical
education activity, so I tried rowing. It felt easy and
I liked it right away.
After graduation, I didn’t row because there
wasn’t much time to spare in medical school or
during residency; later, of course, there were distractions as I was getting my career and family started.
About 20 years ago, I attended a medical
meeting in Australia and, purely by chance, had
dinner with a lovely physician and his wife, whose
daughters rowed for the Australian national team.
I was unexpectedly invited to row a double at dawn
ASH Clinical News
the next day from the Sydney Boat Club. A case of
jet lag and stories of sharks got me up in plenty of
time for an exhausting outing, but I returned home
with a renewed interest in rowing. That chance
conversation changed my life, because rowing
became quite important after that.
When I know I am travelling to a potentially
interesting venue, I try to find the contact for a local
club online, or the local conference organizer has a
colleague who rows. This strategy proved successful,
and it became a fun adventure to arrange an outing
when I would travel.
You have rowed on the world’s six inhabited continents – had that been your goal from the outset?
It was not a goal at the outset, though in retrospect
it was lucky to check Australia off my “continents to
row” list at t he start! It came about as I was travelling to meetings around the world and realized there
would usually be some downtime in which I could
row. Often it was easier to find a boat club than a
rowing machine for exercise.
What has been your most rewarding rowing experience?
I won at U.S. Rowing Masters Nationals a few years
ago. That was an unexpected prize; I had been
rowing harder for a number of years and participating in local races, but this Masters is a major event
in post-university rowing. Hundreds of men and
women come from all over the country for several
days of racing; there are huge video screens pro-
January 2016