Road to Rio: Zoe Lee leading from the front as she targets Olympic reward

That emotion will not just arrive from the previous six minutes of pure adrenaline pumping through her body, but the realisation of the end of four long years on and off the water.

This Olympiad has been a testing period for the 30-year-old, who has had to juggle educational goals with her development into one of Britain’s strongest oar-pullers.

Having reached the conclusion of a four-year long doctorate in geography at Imperial College London, Lee is now bidding to be part of British rowing history and gain a first podium joy in the women’s eight.

“No GB women’s eight has ever won a medal at the Olympics and I really would love to be a trail-blazer and start that off,” she said. “It would be an amazing success.”

Lee was a latecomer to rowing. It was on the netball court where the Richmond athlete’s talent lay early in her sporting career until boredom led her to the water at Oxford University. Soon she was “hooked”, and a Boat Race victory over the University of Cambridge in 2005 followed.

But she had “never entertained the idea” of rowing for Great Britain.

“It is still a bit of a surprise that I’m here doing this,” she said.

“I look at the girls that I train with every day and just think how amazing they are. These are really inspiring women. I rarely put myself in that same bracket.”

Mixing the copious amounts of books with time on the water has not been straightforward since her relocation to London.

Last summer, she had the pressures of Olympic qualification piled on top of a six-week deadline to write her thesis or she would be cut from her course. It is overcoming those challenges which will be at the forefront of her emotion as the final stroke is pulled in Rio.

“It’s such a coincidence that they started together and they’re reaching a climax together,” said Lee. “With rowing it has always been about trying to get better every day. That’s the mantra I have taken on and it’s been a springboard to springboard since.”

The United States women have dominated the previous two Olympic renewals, with Britain’s eight left disappointed with fifth place finishes in each.

Those performances have encapsulated British frustration in the event since 1976, despite 63 medals collected throughout the other rowing disciplines.

In all likeliness, Britain will not be challenging the all-conquering Americans, who won the 2015 World Championships by three seconds, with New Zealand, Canada, Russia and the Netherlands more likely to be on the radar when Lee and her team-mates are stroking towards medals at the end of the 2,000m.

Having qualified their spot on the start line with a fourth-place finish at the 2015 Worlds in Lucerne, Switzerland, Lee has genuine reason to believe that the coxed crew can rewrite history in Brazil. She said: “Last year was a really exciting year for me and the women’s eight.

“We really felt like we bedded in some fundamental patterns and skills. It meant every single race we were learning stuff and thriving on the challenge.

“By the time of the championships, I felt I was leading the troops into war. I really felt this huge sense of pride to sit out there at the front of the boat and know I had seven girls behind me who were the fittest and strongest they had ever been.

“We were obviously a little bit disappointed that we didn’t stand on the podium and win a medal. But there’s definitely a huge sense of momentum.”

First, however, Lee must secure her own place. She will be competing alongside partner Katie Greves at the British trials in Caversham this coming week hoping to ensure she is still ahead in the race for selection.

“I want to be sitting in the eight on the start line at Rio, that is my absolute ambition,” Lee added.

“I really want that slot. The eight is such an exciting boat. When you have six eights side by side there is so much noise. It’s such a ferocious race.

“You’re going all out for six minutes and when you cross the line, you’re either in the position you want to be or you’re not. There’s no hiding from that emotion. It can be a really joyful emotion or really quite dark.

“You question whether you could have done any more, but you never could have. There’s never anything left in reserve.”