Grit, dedication, and peak performance are all things you need as an Olympic athlete—they are also attributes you need as a physician.
First-year medical student Meridith Kisting has already tackled the Olympic Trials and now she’s on her way to being a Physician Innovator with a medical degree from the world’s first engineering-based college of medicine, Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois.
“I believe that all of these traits will help me become a Physician Innovator willing to take on challenges that are bigger than any one person could solve alone,” Kisting said.
Kisting is used to a challenge and performing under pressure. She competed in the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials for rowing, competing for a slot on Team USA going to Tokyo.
“One of my greatest strengths was staying coachable on the water. I focused on keeping an open mind and tried to incorporate feedback from coaches and teammates quickly, allowing me to make a lot of progress,” Kisting said.
Kisting’s progress towards excellence in rowing continued after her undergraduate studies as she worked to see how far she could go in the sport. During that time, Kisting found that like medicine, rowing is unpredictable, and you must be ready to adapt to handling uncertainty.
“Each season played out very differently with new challenges, from weather to travel logistics, were always there. The best approach for me was to stay in the moment and focus on the task at hand, whether that be the morning’s workout or figuring out how to pack for a three-month training camp,” she said.
While she didn’t receive a spot on Team USA in Tokyo, her time in rowing inspired her to go into medicine and the lessons she learned will support her time in medical school and as a physician. She credits physical therapists, sports medicine physicians, and registered dietitians for many of her successes, and the inspiration to go into health care.
“I benefited from being a consumer of high-quality health care in more ways than I can list and was inspired to learn how to show the same level of respect and concern to patients. I have a background in biochemistry and cell biology, so I always wanted to understand things from the ground up. Medicine provided the best opportunity for me to combine my interests while ensuring that I would continue to work as a part of a team for the rest of my career,” Kisting said.
Just before starting medical school in June 2024, Kisting helped out with the University of Wisconsin Lightweight Women’s Team. She also spent four years coaching high school and middle school rowing. She believes the experience made her a better student of the sport, a better communicator, and gave her an opportunity to give back to the next generation. “Nothing makes you choose your words more carefully than teaching a seventh grader how to hold an oar for the first time,” she said.
Kisting’s compassion and communication skills will now transfer to the bedside where she will be working with patients at Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Kisting retired from rowing herself in 2021 deciding to focus on the next stage of her career.
“I had to work on recognizing that the skills I developed in sports could be transferred to other areas of my life. While the specifics of my accomplishments didn’t matter anymore, my ability to work on long-term projects without seeing immediate results did,” she said.
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Meridith attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she spent four years with the Illinois Women’s Rowing Club and served as president for three years. She was named the team’s 2012 Rowing Athlete of the Year and received ACRA Second Team All-America and ACRA All-Great Lakes Region in 2014 and 2015. Kisting graduated from Illinois in 2015 with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry.
Meridith Kisting has also been recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in an article featuring medical-student Olympians. That article can be found here.