Schimnowski merrily rowing along

Lexi Schimnowski had never even heard of rowing three years ago.

Fast forward to today, the 20-year-old from East St. Paul is on track to represent her country in the sport on the world’s biggest stage. She was recently one of 35 athletes to be identified as a 2025 RBC Future Olympian by National Sport Organization scouts.

“I’m kind of just in disbelief that this is my life and that this has all happened,” said Schimnowski.

“Sometimes it feels kind of like a dream.”

Her first step towards this was back in 2023 when her good friend, a speedskater named Lindsay Smart, invited Schimnowski to join her at an RBC Training Ground event at the University of Winnipeg.

The idea of the program is to test young athletes in several categories like endurance, strength and speed to see if they’d be a good fit in a certain Olympic sport.

Schimnowski, a Grade 12 hockey player for the St. Mary’s prep team at the time, didn’t have plans that Saturday so she figured she’d tag along.

“It was really just to do something fun with my friend. I ended up doing all the tests, went home, didn’t think anything about it, and then I got an email from Rowing Canada like a month later saying, ‘Hey, we saw that you had some pretty good results on some of the tests,’” said Schimnowski.

They recommended that she head down to the Winnipeg Rowing Club to work with Janine Stephens — a silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics in London — to give the sport a shot.

“I thought that the community that they have at the Winnipeg Rowing Club was just awesome because anyone from 12 years old to 90 years old rows there and everyone is super nice. And, I mean, some of these people are just incredible, like, they’re 65 and still racing,” said Schimnowski.

“So, I just really loved everything about it. I think rowing people in general are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And coming from hockey, where it’s a very different culture, it was just a whole different world.”

A few months later, she put down the oar to head to Mount Allison University in New Brunswick to play U Sports hockey. It was something she had worked years to accomplish, but after playing in just one game, she concluded that her heart wasn’t in it.

“I kind of realized that maybe this isn’t what I want to do anymore. Maybe this isn’t how I want to go university. And so I decided to leave my university two months in, and I came home, and I texted Janine and said, ‘I want to row,’” said Schimnowski.

Despite having barely any experience, she reached out to several American universities to offer her services in rowing as she was determined to be a student athlete. The University of Minnesota saw something in her and gave her a chance.

“It’s not a super normal pathway, but it’s been super exciting to see her progress and the determination she had in starting something new,” said Stephens.

“The power she was able to generate, especially on the rowing machine, was really strong right from the beginning. She showed up and just did the work all the time and had the willingness to want to do it and want to get faster. She asked questions and had that passion for learning in, ‘What can I do to do more? What else should I be doing?’ And that inquisitive mind was really helpful to get her going. I mean, physically, she’s tall and strong. She has the physical gifts, but it’s more about how you use them and that mental toughness to push through.”

Third time proved to be the charm for Schimnowski. After going through the RBC Training Ground trials the two previous years, she was finally chosen this time around. She found out several weeks before the official news broke on Dec. 10.

“I was in the middle of exams when it was announced, and so I remember I put my phone on silent, and then I came back to almost 100 text messages. It was a little overwhelming, but it was also exciting,” said Schimnowski.

“I had people reach out to me that I haven’t seen in a long time. So it was kind of also nice to kind of reconnect with people and be like, ‘Hey, I’m not playing hockey anymore. I actually row now.’ So, yeah, it was really fun.”

In addition to funding, she will also receive mentorship opportunities from Olympians and additional coaching.

In short, it’s a game changer.

“I don’t think people fully understand how like crazy this program is,” said Schminowski.

“Like after I did it once, I tell every single person I know, ‘You have to do it, because you can never know, you can be really good at some really niche sport and you just don’t know.’”

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