Love the Process: Sera Busse's Journey to the National Team

When Sera Busse lines up at the World Rowing Championships, it will mark the culmination of years of grit, setbacks, and breakthroughs. A former walk-on from Tufts University, she has spent this season locked into a fixed lineup in the women’s quad learning to match rhythm, power, and mindset with three other athletes. For her, the experience has been transformative: a shift from perfecting her own stroke to building the shared feel of a boat chasing one goal.

“The biggest change has been rowing in a team boat with a consistent lineup every day, often twice a day,” she says. “My focus has shifted from solely working on my individual technique to tuning into the adjustments and collective feel we need as a crew. It has been so rewarding to go through this process with them.”

That process has been anything but easy. Coming from a smaller rowing program, Busse had more ground to make up than most of her peers. In the early days, she tried to muscle her way through with sheer volume, only to end up sidelined with a back injury. The setback forced her to rethink her approach. “I got really strong in the weight room, became intentional with my technique, and learned how to increase my training capacity without injury,” she recalls. It’s a lesson in patience and resilience, skills that have proven just as vital as physical strength in her rise to the elite level.

Still, there are moments when doubt creeps in. On the hardest training days, when frustration boils over, Busse leans into something simple: joy. “I love to train,” she says. “Even after a tough day, or a string of tough days, reminding myself of that makes it easy to keep showing up.”

That love of the process has carried her from a late start in the sport to the pinnacle of competition. She first walked onto the Tufts rowing team as a sophomore, trading her years as a competitive rock climber for the unfamiliar grind of the erg. What she lacked in rowing experience, she made up for in curiosity, competitiveness, and an eagerness to learn. “I tried to be a sponge for feedback and apply it right away,” she says. “But more than anything, I loved being part of the team. After years in an individual sport, it was incredibly rewarding to work toward a shared goal in the boat.”

That team-first mentality will serve her well in Shanghai, where she’ll line up in the women’s quad for her first international race. “Since I was very young, I’ve been captivated by elite sports. I can still remember watching rowing at the 2016 Rio Olympics and suddenly feeling determined to be like the athletes there. To finally represent the U.S. on the start line is a dream come true.”

Her path hasn’t been conventional, but she sees that as a message to others. “You can absolutely get here from a smaller program,” she says. “It takes initiative, consistency, self-belief, sometimes a little delusion, and a lot of support. Bigger programs provide a clear path, but when you don’t have that, you learn to take ownership of your own development.”

Along the way, Busse built a strong support system: the Green Racing Project, coaches Steve and Hillary, her partner Ashton, and countless teammates who challenged her to grow. She also found inspiration in her work with Hydrow, where she shares the sport she loves with thousands of people and feels the encouragement of a community that has followed her journey from the start. 

Through all of this, Busse often thinks of her first coach, Brian Dawe, who passed away just days before she was named to the national team. “He had an infectious love of this sport,” Busse says. “He often spoke in riddles that at the time I only pretended to understand, but over the years I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the way he described rowing. In 2018, I wrote him an email announcing that 'I was gonna go for it.' It took me a while, but I would not be here without him."

Now, standing on the edge of her biggest stage yet, she balances nerves with routine. Ice cream and early bedtimes help, but when the adrenaline hits, she channels it into focus. “Instead of letting the moment overwhelm me, I use the energy to block out distractions and trust my body to do what it knows how to do.”

Ultimately, what drives her isn’t medals or records, it’s chasing the limits of what’s possible. Busse recalls a moment when she broke through on a 2k, PR’ing by nine seconds. “I didn’t feel like I had done anything special, just that when I finished the piece, I knew that that was the absolute peak of my capability at that time. That feeling is intoxicating, and I chase it every time I race.”

For Sera Busse, the World Championships are more than a race. They’re the culmination of years of determination and growth, and the beginning of what’s next. Somewhere out there, another young walk-on might be watching, wondering if she could get there too. If she asks Sera, the answer is clear: Yes, you can.