HSB25 HIGH ACHIEVERS: Samaya Khosla taking gap year ahead of rowing at highly-ranked University of Texas in 2026-27

By Martin Cleary

Sports was an important part of growing up for Samaya Khosla as she learned all about soccer with the Ottawa Internationals, alpine skiing at Camp Fortune, tennis on neighbourhood courts and dance.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic landed with a thud, all sports stopped as teams and athletes couldn’t come together to train and test their skills.

“I was doing dance at the time online over Zoom, but it was a struggle. It was so restrictive,” Khosla said about the curve ball thrown into her sports life.

When the pandemic curtains were drawn back and the sports community could reopen, Khosla was a Grade 10 student at Elmwood School. Rowing coach Derek O’Farrell, who competed for Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics, put the call out for rowers at the school.

The response was big as the Elmwood students were looking for a way to balance their Grade 9-12 academic classes. About 30 students headed for the Ottawa Rowing Club, which was well more than the number of single, double and quad boats could handle at one time.

Senior athletes were given priority to try rowing first and Khosla patiently waited her turn on the dock. When Khosla moved into a boat, it was a positive moment.

But months down the road, enthusiasm for rowing at Elmwood had dwindled as only Khosla and another girl remained with the program and trained through the winter using stationary ERG machines.

Khosla had found a new sport and established two goals – row well enough to make a Canadian youth team and earn a scholarship to an NCAA university.

Mission accomplished on both accounts in relatively short order for Khosla, who graduated from Elmwood last month.

The Ottawa Rowing Club athlete was named to Canada’s team for the CanAmMex competition last year and was recently again selected by Rowing Canada to the national junior squad for the Intercontinental Rowing Challenge July 15-16 at Ypsilanti, Michigan along with clubmates Max Froeschl, Jack Coulson and Henrik Neuspiel.

The club has established a Go Fund Me account to help the four U19 junior rowers cover some of their costs.

A year ago, Khosla committed to attend the University of Texas, Austin on an athletic scholarship and will row for the women’s Longhorns’ team, which was ranked No. 2 in the NCAA for 2024-25. She’s hoping to upgrade to a full from a partial scholarship now that the Longhorns’ women’s program will give its 68 rowers a full ride in 2025-26.

Khosla, 17, plans to take a gap year for the 2025-26 academic and athletic year to travel to clubs across Canada and develop her rowing skills and strength before heading to the University of Texas for 2026-27. She is considering studying either business or commerce as her major.

“Our (Elmwood) coach was amazing,” Khosla said in a phone interview this week. “He was an Olympic rower and he inspired me.”

She also was motivated in the sport by former Elmwood teammate Gaby Jennings, who has completed her first year at the University of California, Berkley on an athletic scholarship.

“I had a good teammate and I was close to her. We’d push each other and I needed that to be competitive,” Kholsa added.

“We were both at Elmwood and the Ottawa Rowing Club. One of the big things was we were similar – same school, lived almost next to each other and had the same speed. I looked up to her. I knew she was good and she was in the boat (a quad) I wanted to be in.”

Earning a scholarship to Texas was a lengthy process for Khosla.

“I had been talking to the University of Texas for awhile,” she outlined. “It’s a process to get recruited. I started at the beginning of Grade 11 in September.

“I reached out to them. They’re a good school and competitive. They were impressed with my ERG scores and versatility (ability to scull and sweep). They also were interested when I made the national team.”

When Khosla enrols for classes and rowing in 2026-27, she hopes to be supported with a full scholarship. Earlier this year, the University of Texas significantly increased its women’s rowing scholarships to 68 from 20 as a part of “a broader initiative to increase scholarship across all sports at UT,” according to a university press release.

“The biggest thing is how competitive they are. I went to Texas for a training camp and got to know the coach (head coach Dave O’Neill),” Khosla explained.

“It’s also hot there. That was a big selling point for me. I’ve always watched videos of the team.”

In the summer of 2024, Khosla was selected to the national junior team for the CanAmMex regatta in Mexico City.

After a four-day training camp to acclimatize to the high altitude, Khosla turned her two races – a quad and a pair – into podium finishes with bronze-medal efforts.

She’s looking forward to her next international meet in the middle of the month in Ypsilanti.

“It’s one of the top international meets. I tried out for the team by submitting my ERG scores (a time-based score over 2,000 metres) and racing a single and a double to qualify for the team,” Khosla said.

“I’m really excited as it will help my development.”

Later this summer, she plans to compete in the annual Royal Canadian Henley Regatta Aug. 3-10 in St. Catharines and hopes to qualify for the Ontario team to the Canada Cup in London Aug. 11-17.

Read More of our 2025 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2025