From a Rowing World Championship to the Thames: Cambridge’s Camille Vandermeer
Call it kismet. The first time Camille Vandermeer (Peterhouse 2025) became aware of the University of Cambridge, she was reading about The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in her local paper in Elmira, New York.
"There was an athlete from the next town over [Olivia Coffey (Homerton 2017)] and she had gone on to do the boat race for Cambridge, said Vandermeer. I was still in high school at the time and I remember seeing the article and thinking it was really cool that she had done that. After that, I kept my eye on Cambridge."
Back then, Vandermeer was working her way through high school. Not the easiest of times, she recalls. A self-described angsty teen, Vandermeer found balance and motivation in team sports. She loved the "outdoorsy" aspect of Elmira community life but was also troubled by the poverty she observed and the struggles of under-resourced neighborhoods. Her concern led her in middle school to sign up to serve as a jurist in a program called Youth Court. It is designed to adjudicate the cases of young offenders, keeping them out of the criminal justice system, an intervention strategy to help set first-time offenders on the right path.
"You come face to face with these kids, who are actually good kids but have taken a wrong turn. It would be easy to see how that kind of behavior could persist and how that poverty cycle can repeat itself from one bad mistake," explained Vandermeer, who stayed with the program through high school.
Her willingness to step in, to expand her understanding, speaks to a strength of will, a grit that has served her well. When her high school soccer team disbanded, she looked for another way to channel her energy. She found it in her family basement. Her mother was a rower at Cornell University and installed a rowing machine to keep in shape for alumni competitions. The machine, also known as an ergometer or erg, measures the amount of work the rower’s muscles produce. It takes power, energy, and endurance. Vandermeer loved the workout and realized she had a high degree of strength and skill.
"I joined a team in Ithaca during my senior year in high school, and I really enjoyed the people. I found that I fit into that community so naturally," said Vandermeer.
Top collegiate rowing programs took notice. Vandermeer was recruited by Princeton where she became a three-time Ivy League Champion, a two-time NCAA Medalist, a First Team All-American, and was named captain of the Princeton Women’s Crew and Academic All-Ivy League. Then she took on international competitions, winning at the 2022 World Rowing Under 23 Championships. After graduating from Princeton, Vandermeer competed in an Olympic Development competition in 2024. In 2025, she took part in the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, China. Her team won.
"Honestly, it was a bit of a whirlwind," she laughed. "The moment had been something I had envisioned during every workout for many years, so it was very surreal to have it actually materialize. "
Now, at Cambridge where she is studying for her MBA and hopes to compete in The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in April, she trains seven days per week with the team, and finds she is facing a new kind of challenge.
"I’ve been training for a two-kilometer race on flat water in a straight line, and this is a 6.8-kilometer race that goes around all these curves and bends in the tideway, which is notoriously choppy and unpredictable, with a current moving under you."
Vandermeer also acknowledges the pressure the entire team is facing after the Light Blue’s winning streak. The team made history with clean sweeps in 1993, 2018, 2023, and 2025. Last year was the eighth consecutive win for the women. As she gears up for the March 12th crew announcements, she is focused on "keeping her eye on the prize," and keeping up with her intense schedule.
"It has been difficult to balance academics and kind of the social aspect that comes along with being at Cambridge with the rowing experience, at the time, I wouldn’t trade it for the world."