Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 387 is a conversation with professional wakeboarder Alexa Score, who grew up hunting and ice fishing in small-town Minnesota, survived a leukemia diagnosis that left her blood ninety-seven percent cancerous, and turned that scare into the push she needed to move to Orlando, ride professionally, and build a career in television. She talks about the doctor she trusted, the breakthrough drug Gleevec, the moment she first felt strong again, and how she is using wakeboarding to transcend the sport.
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Alexa Score is a professional wakeboarder from Spicer, Minnesota, a small town of about a thousand people, who is also a leukemia survivor and a television host. She grew up hunting and ice fishing with her father, moved to Orlando to pursue wakeboarding professionally, earned a finance degree, and has since moved into TV broadcasting.
Alexa was diagnosed with leukemia. By the time she was diagnosed, about ninety-seven percent of her blood was made up of cancerous cells. She was treated with the drug Gleevec, which worked extraordinarily well: her cancerous blood-cell count dropped from around 140,000 to roughly 10 to 15 within a week, though the treatment made her severely ill for about four months.
Alexa describes the diagnosis as the catalyst that pushed her to chase her dreams. After months too weak to brush her own hair, she remembers the moment she first felt no pain and then felt strong again, and she used that fire to declare she was moving to Orlando to wakeboard. As she put it, when you are the cancer girl, people cannot really say no to you, so she told everyone what she was going to do and went.
Alexa is from Spicer, Minnesota, a town of about a thousand people. She grew up with an outdoorsman father, hunting deer and ducks and ice fishing, often showing up to high school in camo before changing into a girly outfit. Minnesota's short warm season is part of why she became so passionate about water sports.
Alexa had wanted to pursue wakeboarding before her diagnosis, and the leukemia experience gave her the courage and the leverage to actually go for it. She moved to Orlando, where her sister was also into the sport, and competed against girls who had been wakeboarding their whole lives, pushing through real self-doubt while also earning a finance degree as a safety net.
Beyond competing as a professional wakeboarder, Alexa has moved into television broadcasting, using the platform she built in wakeboarding to transcend the sport and host on TV. Her story of resilience through a serious cancer diagnosis has become a central part of how she connects with audiences.
Two things caught my eye about Alexa right away: she is a professional wakeboarder, and she is from Minnesota, which did not seem to add up. The more I looked, the more I realized those were the least interesting things about her. She is a cancer survivor whose diagnosis became the reason she finally chased the life she wanted, and she is taking that into television now. I wanted to hear how someone turns the worst news of their life into a launch point. Press play in the YouTube player above.
Alexa grew up in Spicer, a town of about a thousand people, hunting deer and ducks and ice fishing with her dad, changing out of camo into a girly outfit once she got to school. She says the short Minnesota summer is exactly why she fell so hard for water sports. It is a fun origin story, and it sets up everything that follows. Listen to how she got from a frozen lake to professional wakeboarding in the episode.
Alexa is candid about the dark stretch: days too weak to lift a hairbrush, bone pain that kept her in bed, nights when she genuinely wondered if she would wake up. With ninety-seven percent of her blood cancerous, the drug Gleevec was working so hard that the treatment itself made her dangerously sick, and she and her family had to weigh blood work against an unlivable quality of life. She tells it without flinching. Hear it in her own words in the player above.
Alexa remembers sitting in class and feeling like she was high, then realizing it was simply the first time in six months she felt no pain. That was followed by the feeling of being strong again, and for a stubborn, fiery young woman that was the spark. With a prognosis that nobody could promise would last, she decided to move to Orlando and wakeboard, and as she says, when you are the cancer girl, nobody tells you no. Listen to that turning point in the episode.
Even after moving, Alexa wrestled with doubt. She came from a traditional household where a steady job, health insurance, and a 401k were non-negotiable, so she chased wakeboarding while also earning a finance degree as a hedge. She is honest that fear held her back at her first contests against girls who had ridden their whole lives, and how she pushed through it. Press play to hear how she balanced the dream against the safety net.
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The day after this one, what stuck with me was Alexa's line about feeling strong again being the thing that fired her up. Most people would have used a diagnosis like hers as a reason to play it safe. She used it as permission to do the opposite.
Her story is really about turning a deadline you did not ask for into a reason to stop waiting. Whether you wakeboard or not, that lesson lands. Listen to the whole thing.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Alexa Score is a professional wakeboarder from Spicer, Minnesota, a leukemia survivor, and a television host. Raised by an outdoorsman father, she grew up hunting and ice fishing before a leukemia diagnosis that left her blood ninety-seven percent cancerous became the catalyst for a move to Orlando to pursue wakeboarding. She competed professionally while earning a finance degree and has since carried her platform into television broadcasting, where her story of resilience is central to her work.
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