Mike Wherley stands out in the Oxford crew for the Xchanging Boat Race this Saturday. The American is, at 6ft 7in, the tallest in the boat by some distance and, aged 36, he will shatter the record for the oldest rower in the history of the race - he has eye-catching rowing credentials, too.

Wherley has been a world champion three times, an Olympian twice and the United States national champion seven times. How does training for the Boat Race compare? “On the whole, it's not as intense,” Wherley said. “There's more of a long-term technical focus than we have in the US. There's a lot more talking about the rowing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

“We have much more discussion about what's going on, whereas in the US, especially the national team, the focus is primarily on getting people as strong as they can. Here the technique is at the forefront the whole time.”

Rowers need a good technique to survive a winding race of four miles, 374 yards (about seven kilometres) that lasts 18 minutes, compared with international races on a two-kilometre straight lasting less than six minutes.

It is eight years since Wherley was named US Rowing Male Athlete of the Year. After a disappointing tenth place at the Athens Olympics in 2004, when he was put in the four instead of his favoured eight, he retired to concentrate on a career in finance. It was to “expand my career opportunities” - not, he emphasises, to row - that he went to Oxford.

He approached Cambridge, too, but the university rejected him. “Oxford had a better programme for me,” he said. “The Cambridge masters in finance [programme] typically doesn't accept someone with a liberal arts background.” He read history and journalism at the University of Minnesota.

His rowing record did not sway Cambridge, either. “I was told flat out by both universities that rowing wouldn't factor in their decisions and that it might, in fact, hurt me,” he said. “There are some people on admissions committees who don't like people coming over just to snag a degree.”

Now he struggles to fit in his degree around training. “I go to class every day for four to six hours, no break,” Wherley said. After Saturday's race, it will be a sprint finish before his exams start on April 7, yet it is an improvement on the situation faced two years ago by Jake Wetzel, a friend, who also rowed for Oxford. “Jake had four exams the week before the race,” Wherley said. “He hated life then.”

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