Cambridge rower James Robson learning to be elite athlete with heart problem

Cambridge six-seat James Robson has more than just a place of birth in common with Manchester United’s Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen.

This weekend the MBA student will be looking to power the light blue boat to a third straight victory, three years after looking down at his smartwatch whilst out on the water with a Great Britain team-mate and noticing his heart rate was unusually high.

He was eventually diagnosed with the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (AF), and, like Eriksen – who went into cardiac arrest during the 2020 Euros – is learning what it means to be an elite athlete with a heart problem.

“I’m a football fan, I grew up in Copenhagen,” Robson told the PA news agency. “That Christian Eriksen incident happened where I used to go and watch football.

“I was watching it on telly. I wasn’t watching in the stadium. Look, it’s incredibly difficult, elite sport is very hard on your body and training as much as we do, especially those football guys, it does take its toll.

“But I think the main thing we’ve got to celebrate is the work that people like the British Heart Foundation are doing, the amazing medical staff in all the elite sport environments do to try and help us is second to none.

“I think these incidents just highlight the amazing work the medical teams do.”

Eriksen has never disclosed a specific diagnosis behind the incident, but told the BBC he was not aware of any underlying conditions in his family. He returned to football in February 2022, and is the first Premier League player fitted with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), which can reset the heart after a cardiac arrest.

Robson, on the other hand, discovered he had one of the most common forms of arrythmia after undergoing an electrocardiogram (ECG) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who confirmed his AF diagnosis.

There are 1.6 million confirmed AF diagnoses in the UK, but the British Heart Foundation believe tens of thousands more could have it without realising.

People living with AF are five times more likely to have a stroke, although the risk is reduced if it is monitored and treated.

Boat Race partner the BHF is undertaking a study – led by Cambridge research fellow Dr Peter Charlton – looking at whether wearable devices like smartwatches could be used to improve the AF screening process.

Robson wears a heart monitor in every training session, “just to make sure that everything is still in range” and has a “robust” programme in place that allows him to “recover from it as quickly as possible, so it’s more reactive.”

He has also made a number of “lifestyle changes” to manage the condition, including reducing his caffiene intake and introducing meditation to his routine, and undergoes regular ECG testing.

Robson also carries medication he only needs to use if he feels something unusual with his heart.

He said: “I feel like I still prove that I can get good performances out of myself, and, again, I’m really just trying to enjoy my rowing, because managing this heart condition does take a bit of effort, but it’s super fun.”