n 2023, Natalia “Nat” Toms became the first woman to cox Great Britain’s men’s eight boat at the World Rowing U19 Championships.

This past summer, the Harvard junior made history again as the first woman to cox her country’s men’s eight boat at an even higher level, the World Rowing U23 Championships.

Both times she led her crew to a gold medal.

Despite her historic international career, Toms arrived at Harvard unfamiliar with the Crimson’s home waters, and had never competed in the Head of the Charles Regatta, the world’s largest three-day rowing competition.

“I never did Head of the Charles — this is my third Head of the Charles, and in fact, it’s quite funny because I’m the varsity cox, but I think a lot of the coxes on the team have done Head of the Charles many more times than I have,” Toms said.

“I do think about the pressure of trying to get the line right on race day, but having done lots and lots of races, like the World Championships — much more stressful races where there’s a lot riding on me,” she said.

However, she also noted how the positive culture of the Crimson’s heavyweight team helps her manage these high expectations.

“At Harvard, we win, and we lose together as a boat as a Harvard varsity, so it’s all on me to do my job really well.”

Toms arrived in Cambridge as a recruited coxswain. She made her Head of the Charles debut in Harvard’s C boat in the men’s heavyweight championship eights event, finishing 15th. She spent much of her freshman year leading the Crimson’s second varsity boat, helping the team beat Yale at the annual Harvard-Yale Regatta and win silver at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.

In her sophomore year, Toms earned a spot on the men’s heavyweight first varsity boat. She coxed Harvard’s A boat to a third-place finish at the Head of the Charles, before closing the season with the Crimson’s third straight win against Yale and a fourth-place finish at the IRA Championships.

Then came this summer’s world championship in Duisburg, Germany.

Racing with her Harvard teammate, sophomore Kynan Tallec-Botos, and seven other rowers, Toms helped her crew advance out of the opening heat with the fastest time of 5:48.54.

Three days later, Great Britain claimed gold in the final with a time of 5:31.94, eclipsing the United States’ boat by just over a second for its seventh straight title.

The experience, Toms said, allowed her to reconnect with teammates she had met on the British junior rowing circuit and at previous World Championships.

“It was a nice full circle moment to be the first girl to cox the men’s eight at the U23 age level as well,” Toms said. “From start to end, it was a really positive experience with a great group of guys and a great coach and great support around me. I learned a lot, and it’s probably been my biggest rowing highlight so far.”

Toms said one of the biggest lessons she drew from the experience was adapting her leadership style to an older crew.

“Being of college age, and working with college-age people — we’re young adults,” Toms said. “It’s a very collaborative environment versus a leadership style where you’re given a lot of responsibility, and you’re trying to lead people who are your peers. Back when I was a junior, we were all also children and high schoolers.”

“I learned to lead almost in a bit more of a laissez-faire style, which I found, coxing men, that actually was something that was really helpful to give people that room to not feel like they’re being told what to do every step of the way,” she added.

After Harvard graduated six seniors from its varsity boat, Toms said she looks forward to applying these lessons to her new crew. The Head of the Charles Regatta will also offer an early indication of how the Crimson will compare to other schools.

“I’m playing out now my leadership style with this new group of guys, which I wish I could go back and do from the start with last year’s group of guys,” Toms said. “It’s being more confident, and the way that I see that confidence manifest is having the ability to be more laid back, that I don’t need to micromanage.”

“Because I have that World Championship win under my belt, then coming into the boat this year as a junior as well, it’s been so much easier,” Toms said. “It’s exciting to see where this group is going to go.”

Toms will have her first chance to test that approach at the Head of the Charles, a race that offers both familiarity and new challenges.

Structurally, the race presents a few complexities. The Head of the Charles is a head race, with boats starting at staggered intervals rather than racing side by side. Its course is more than twice as long as a typical spring race.

Beyond monitoring water conditions, gusts of wind, and stroke technique, Toms also highlighted two notoriously tricky turns near the team’s boathouse at the Johns Weeks and Anderson Bridges.

“There are moments where I let myself get carried away and really enjoy the race, but for the most of it, I have to be very calm, and I have to be very process-driven,” Toms said. “I’ll have a race plan I’m trying to carry out. I have a goal.”

That said, the course is very familiar to Toms. It passes Newell Boathouse, home to Harvard’s men’s rowing team, located across the Charles River.

The familiarity comes with added pressure to defend the Crimson’s home waters.

“One of our assistant coaches said, ‘You do not get out pulled on home water.’ That’s been sticking with me for these past few weeks. We’ve got all these crews coming from across the world,” Toms explained. “We’re hosting crews from England. Washington will be coming, our biggest competitor from the West Coast. Cambridge University will be coming to see if they can go down the course with the fastest boat.”

“For us, there’s so much pride invested in this race. That’s why what the coach said is sticking in my mind because we can’t be outpulled on home water,” she added.

For Toms, her place in the men’s boat also carries a personal weight.

In 2017, World Rowing voted overwhelmingly to allow coxswains to compete regardless of gender. Though others have described Toms as a “trailblazer,” she said the term is “sort of an overestimate.”

“It’s a bit of a technicality, which is sort of why I’m here,” Toms said. “But at the same time, it’s nice to use the platform to be able to be like, ‘Hey, women can really excel in what is a male-dominated field.’”

“It is quite literally a men’s sport, and you’re a very small woman,” she added. “In that kind of respect, that really makes me proud to know that I’m sort of holding my own and doing well in a scene that is quite by nature a men’s sport.”

Toms dreams of carrying that path forward. She hopes to be the first woman to cox Great Britain’s men’s crews at every level, setting her sights on the 2032 and 2036 Summer Olympics.

After graduating from Harvard, where she is a Computer Science concentrator living in Kirkland House, Toms hopes to take a gap year or pursue postgraduate study at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. She also hopes to compete in the renowned Boat Race, the annual rowing contest between the two universities, which she describes as a “cox’s race.”

“I think the closest thing I could liken to that is the Harvard-Yale race that we have at the end of our year, which again is like very much a cox’s race in some respects,” Toms said. “That would be my biggest dream and my next step towards — kind of twofold — my dream in life and also help me progress towards an Olympic career.”

For now, Toms is focused on making the most of her final two years of undergraduate rowing.

“I don’t know where my path is going,” Toms said. “My path might take me back to England, so I don’t know if I’ll ever get to race Head of the Charles again.”

“It’s really important for me, for myself, that I just let myself enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the intensity and the energy,” she added. “That sort of lights up the river at this time of the year because there’s any other time of year quite like it on our water — so I just try to enjoy it as it comes.”

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.