BH: How did you get involved in rowing and where did that take you?
MH: I started rowing in my final year of my undergraduate science degree. A friend suggested I should try rowing as I am tall (1.9m), so decided to give it a go before leaving university. Initially I rowed at club level, aspiring to race at the National Championships. As I continued to improve and got faster, my goals changed and I set my sights on being selected for the Australian Rowing team to race at the world championships and eventually the Olympic Games. I made my first national team in 1999 and competed at the Sydney and Athens Olympics in 2004 in the women's quad sculls and eight respectively.
BH: When did you decide to switch to medicine and why?
MH: By 2004, I had decided I would retire from rowing. There were a number of reasons: I was getting older and wasn’t sure I wanted to keep competing at that level for another four years; I was married and being away from home three or more months each year was tough; and I felt it was time to move on and develop new skills and knowledge. In addition, I knew I needed to do something to focus my attention and energies on once I’d retired from rowing. I had become interested in medicine during my science degree when I had studied some medical subjects and found them very interesting. So I sat GAMSAT (entrance test for postgraduate medicine) in the lead-up to selection trials for the Athens Olympics, and gained a place at Sydney University.
It's not often you get to meet an Olympian, so when we met Monique Heinke when Jessica Symes was delivering her keynote, Exam preparation: The sprint and the marathon, we were intrigued. Two tough fields, an elite sport and medicine. How does Monique do it and what advice does she have for Symes Report readers?
• Work out where you want to be in one, five
and 10 years.
• Gather as much information as possible
about the new field.
• Talk to people working in the new area or
who have made the switch.
• Find out what steps you need to do to achieve
the switch – for example more study, courses
or experience.
• Enjoy the process. It will be tough at times,
but remember the bigger goal.
Monique's advice for making the switch