For most people in Chandler, and by extension Lincoln County, getting into a boat means spending a leisurely afternoon on the lake fishing or tubing.
It usually doesn’t result in winning medals.
For Chandler grad Leah Reeves, however, stepping into a boat means gearing up for a race.
The senior at the University of Oklahoma is about to start her fourth season on therowingteam,something that wasn’t on her radar when she was visiting the school. In fact, Reeves was pretty sure her athletic career was over.
“My biggest three sports were basketball, track, and cross country (in high school). I also played softball for a year. I was on the powerlifting team. I was on the shotgun team. I did archery. So I did a lot of athletics and that’s what I love to do, but I wasn’t good enough at any one sporttoplayDivisionOne,” she said.
She was on a tour of the aviation program at OU with her mother, who “kind of” bragged about Reeves’ athletic and academic success in high school. From that, the OU rowing coach caught wind and recruited her as a preferred walk-on, meaning she started training with the team as soon as classes began that August.
That one act led her to today -- voted as the new team captain for her senior year and winning a bronze medal as a member of Team USA at the 2025 FISU World University Games (formerly known as the Universiade) in Germany. She competed in the women’s 8+ event.
“Competing at theWorld University Games in general was a dream. Oh, it was so cool. I just feel so blessed to have received that opportunity in the first place,” she said. “And then winning a bronze medal for the United States was incredible on another whole level. It made me realize what normal people are capable of.”
Reeves continued that she’s looked up to highperformance and college athletes since she was a little girl, especially Division 1 athletes, Olympians, and those who compete for national and world championships. She thought they were superheroes, but this summer,asReevesbecame one of those athletes, she realized that they’re regular people who have worked hard and received great opportunities.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, Reeves compared rowing to cross-country and track. Her team trains year-round, though they have two seasons in the fall and spring/summer, with the latter being their bigger season. Fall tends to be longer distances like 4K, with smaller boats typically singles and pairs.
Spring races are shorter (2,000 meters) and in fourperson and eight-person boats.
She admitted that she didn’t know what rowing was until she got to OU, but she knew that she was a person who worked hard.
“And that’s what the coaches told me was the most important thing. It’s an endurance sport. And so I have a little bit of a background in that. And so I thought, if this is my way to continue my athletic career, then I am all for it,” she said.
Reeves has also competed in the 2025 US Rowing Summer Nationals, winning gold in women’s 4- and 8+, and the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, competing in the U23 Women’s 4- and earning gold in 2024 and fourth in 2025. Her team at OU went fromnotbeing ranked since 2007 to reaching #19 in the NCAA for the 2025 spring season.
However, Reeves believes that her athletic career is likely coming to an end sooner rather than later. While she would like to compete in something like the Olympics, 2028 is too far off, and currently, she’s not fast enough to make the national team. She hopes to continue competing through the summer after she graduates next year, before moving to Idaho with her husband and focusing on her career.
She has her commercial pilot’s license and her instructor license, saying she’s not worried about finding a job. For the rest, she’ll figure it out along the way.
That hasn’t detracted from her determination to put her all into her final seasons. Reeves said she is excited for the upcoming year.
“This season, I know we have a lot of recruits who are very fast that will just keep pushing the needle,” she said.
Reeves added that they have more developed leadership as well. The head coach was new her freshman year and has been revamping the program, causing the team, morale, performance results, team culture and everything to skyrocket. They’re still on the way up.
“Rowing is the biggest team sport I have ever seen. There’s no MVP. There’s no one person who wins the game or wins the race. We all cross the finish line at the same time,” she said. “All eight of us have to do equal work. We all have to endure the same amount of pain.
“We all have to push as hard as we can.”