A Good Balance: local PNW rower aims for Paris in 2024

Veronica Nicacio knows what it takes to balance work, athletics, family, and fun. She knows because she’s currently in the thick of it. Nicacio is training full-time for the USRowing National Team in upstate New York - which includes traveling to races and training venues - all while working to subsidize her housing and living expenses, connecting with teammates and coaches, and staying in touch with her friends and family back home in Vancouver, Washington.

“Everyone's work situation is different. We travel a lot, so a part-time job is more realistic. You learn how to be on the road and keep training while staying financially strong as well as motivated to remain focused on the plan.”

The plan is to make the USRowing National Team for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Nicaco, a second-generation immigrant whose grandparents came from Mexico, has always been active and competitive. She attributes her dedication to athletics to her parents.

“My parents always saw the importance of playing sports and were able to keep us involved in soccer camps, tennis camps, etc., throughout our childhood. We were blessed to be able to do that many things. My parents were very intentional about providing my siblings and me with those experiences because they (my parents) didn’t get them growing up.”

Nicacio recalls loving sports from a young age and habitually creating physical and mental goals for herself to keep focused. Her love of activity continued throughout her childhood and into adulthood. These days, when she returns home, she and her six siblings will still have late-night gym sessions, which turn competitive quickly. This healthy family support has fueled her vision to compete at the highest level in our sport.

While many athletes might find the balancing act hard to sustain - very few national team sports require their athletes to pay their way into participation the way that rowing does - Nicacio has developed substantial competence in managing it all through her various rowing experiences, starting with her high school rowing experience at Vancouver Lake Rowing Club. The athletes, alongside Nicacio, figured out how to be good at rowing despite limited equipment and resources. They also had a lot of fun.

“I think that was good for me. High school rowing can be so intense but because I saw the fun of it early on, I’m still rowing ten years later.”

Nicacio later committed to rowing at the University of Portland where she thoroughly enjoyed her undergraduate studies as well as the team. However, she understood there was still much room for growth in athleticism and contemplated the possibility of training beyond college to truly test her limits. She kept her eyes peeled for such an opportunity.

While she admits that she wasn’t great at balancing rowing and academia at first, Nicacio believes that she got better over the years. Creating a schedule, sticking to it, and having friends on the rowing team who were also adhering to the same schedule helped Nicacio create the habits she needed to thrive.

“It wasn’t that I was lazy, but learning how to study efficiently wasn’t easy. I recognized that sleep and nutrition were essential. I also learned how to be efficient, that was key. It has been paramount to my success now at this training site. In college, I learned a lot about myself, like how to focus and how to manage multiple things on my plate.”

During her junior year, Nicacio was provided with an opportunity to test for a rowing identification camp. She jumped at the chance. Not only was she able to test her own physical limits with a max wattage erg test, a 30-minute erg test, and a 1-minute erg test, but she also got to see other people living the national team training lifestyle; working out three times a day, focusing on their nutrition, sleep and recovery and training for national team trials. She recalls thinking “This is kind of cool!”

The following year Nicacio was invited to the U23 selection camp and it was here that she made a lot of good connections in the sport. Connections are everything in life, in business, in family and friends, and in rowing.

After finishing college and completing a year of missionary work, Nicacio was still eager to take a shot at the national team. She looked at a few different programs and after talking with several, landed on ARION - the Advanced Rowing Initiative of the Northeast. The acronym was derived from the demi-god horse in Greek mythology, who was a divinely-bred, fabulously fast, black-maned horse.

What attracted Nicacio to ARION initially was the female presence. The pandemic took away so many of our social connections, but sport remained an impactful part of mental health for many, including Nicacio. She reflects on her time at the training center, which started during Covid.

“I’ve grown a lot since being here. I’ve learned how to ask for help, for suggestions - I’ve learned how to be vulnerable.”

She’s sitting in a chair looking thoughtful while she speaks. On her wrist is a bracelet that she twists with her other hand. It reads “HOPE” in big bold font. Moving across the country away from her Pacific Northwest family wasn’t easy for Nicacio. They are a large but very close-knit family and she’s the first to leave the town in which they all grew up and still reside. It’s particularly hard when the training doesn’t go to plan, or when homesickness creeps in and motivation is low. To combat this, Nicacio reminds herself of the Rule of Thirds that Olympian Alexi Pappas promotes.

“One-third of your training will be awesome and you’ll be hitting the mark. One-third will be physically average, and probably not great. And one-third will feel like it’s just plain hard. But regardless, every day, you give 100% of what you have - gold or dirt or mud - whatever you have that day, you give it. Because you cannot always control things in your life, you can only control how you react to them.”

Nicacio also tries to remember her “why” in this sport.

“There are a lot of other things I could be doing right now, but I also know that right now I can’t pass this opportunity - to learn as much as I can about myself through this sport. To push my body to higher and higher limits, then use those lessons learned and apply that to all aspects of my life will allow me to become the best version of myself possible.”

When asked about the challenge of having teammates who are also her competitors, she reflects;

“You have to treasure your friendships. It’s imperative that we learn how to trust each other. You want to be someone who they can trust in a race, knowing that you gave your all. We’re teammates too. And even though we compete for spots on the team, we still support each other. I’m always excited for their success.”

Nicacio is now amongst 100+ of her peers training for 30 spots on the Olympic team.

To see more about Veronica Nicacio’s story and to support her journey to the Olympics

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-veronicas-olympic-journey-to-make-history