The drag race of rowing: How Australia plans to break a 124-year drought in the eights

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They are human-powered speedboats, weighing astir a tonne and with a noisy “engine” of 8 elephantine rowers, heaving and straining and pushing their bodies to exhaustion.

But erstwhile the unit of a rowing 8 puts each the parts successful cleanable harmony, the effort seems to driblet away, and so, too, the racket.

“It’s rather ethereal, almost,” three-time Olympic rower Jaime Fernandez says.

“You perceive the bubbles nether the boat, the fin mightiness beryllium humming a little. And the vessel is astir effortless.

“There were moments wherever I tin remember, and picture, sitting successful the vessel thinking, ‘Should it consciousness this easy?’. Particularly successful that 2000 crew, we had moments wherever you sat determination reasoning this is what it feels similar erstwhile you are successful sync, and successful harmony.”

Fernandez rowed successful the Australian men’s 8 astatine 3 Olympic Games, and the unit successful Sydney was the champion of them. But with Fernandez astatine stroke, adjacent that superb vessel didn’t execute its extremity of winning gold; finishing with silver down Great Britain by an agonising 0.8 of a second.

It is inactive the closest immoderate unit has travel to catching the achromatic whale of Australian rowing: an Olympic golden medal successful the coxed eights, men oregon women.

The 1968 Australian men’s 8 rowers, who won an Olympic metallic medal.

Australia is 1 of the world’s champion rowing nations, but since the men’s eights archetypal raced down the Seine successful Paris successful 1900, Australian crews person finished with six medals but ne'er bettered a brace of silvers, successful 1968 successful Mexico City and Sydney successful 2000. Since the women’s eights lawsuit was introduced successful 1976, the Australian women’s crews person not medalled.

The Australian rowing squad hopes to alteration that successful Paris.

What is Australia’s purpose successful 2024?

Catch the bloody whale. In some the men’s and women’s Olympic teams, selectors person made the eights a “priority boat”.

In layman’s terms, they person stacked the Australian eights with astir of the nation’s champion rowers, alternatively of the precocious preferred maneuver of dividing them betwixt smaller boats, which gives the champion accidental of a fig of medals.

In the men’s crew, 3 of the 4 men who won a golden successful the coxless fours successful Tokyo person been enactment successful the eight: Alex Purnell, Jack Hargreaves and Spencer Turrin.

The Australian men’s 8 successful Poznan successful June.

“It has historically been the blue-ribbon lawsuit astatine the Olympics, and Australia has ne'er won a golden medal astatine the Olympics, truthful everyone recognises that determination is an accidental there,” Purnell said.

“We are ace excited. It is simply a caller situation for us.”

In the women’s eight, a likewise beardown unit has been assembled. The women’s four, who besides won gold successful Tokyo, was divided up, and though Annabelle McIntyre and Jessica Morrison were enactment successful a pair, Lucy Stephan was deployed to the women’s 8 to fortify its chances.

Why is the eights contention truthful special?

The Oarsome Foursome, and those tinned effect ads, skew the representation successful Australia, but inquire astir radical astir the satellite to representation a rowing contention and they’ll spot the eights.

It is the contention made celebrated by Oxbridge crews connected the Thames, accepted schools regattas, the US assemblage strategy and adjacent Hollywood. The Boys successful the Boat was a George Clooney-directed diagnostic movie released past Christmas astir the US gold-medal unit of 1936, starring Joel Edgerton.

“There is ever a batch of romance astir the eight, which I love. That’s the vessel I spent a batch of clip in,” Fernandez said.

“It is simply a vessel that galore countries emotion to win. It is the biggest boat, it is going the fastest, it is typically astatine the extremity of a regatta truthful it brings with it that benignant of feeling. But you mightiness reason a azygous scull is the 1 existent satellite champion successful our sport, due to the fact that it is the 1 idiosyncratic who does it by themselves.

“But the 8 gets immoderate of the kudos it does due to the fact that it is the main absorption for a batch of countries.”

The astir palmy nations successful the men’s 8 person been countries with the top depth, and a taste attachment to the eight. The USA (12) and Great Britain (4) person won the bulk of Olympic golds, but Germany, Canada and the Netherlands person besides won. New Zealand person won 2 golden medals successful the eight, including the past 1 successful Tokyo.

Since the women’s 8 was archetypal raced successful 1976, the USA (4), Germany (3), Romania (3) and Canada (2) person been the golden medal heavyweights.

How bash you triumph a golden medal successful the eights?

Putting a unit unneurotic susceptible of winning a golden medal successful the eights is, obviously, difficult. For Australia, astatine least.

The Australian women’s 8 successful Poznan successful June.

“It is 1 of the hardest boats to get everything close in,” Fernandez said. “It has the astir fig of people, it is the biggest boat, determination are conscionable factors impacting it being palmy oregon not. Some of those factors are personality, experience, physicality … each of those spell into making that operation work, oregon not work.”

After retiring post-Sydney, Fernandez worked successful precocious show for Rowing Australia for 11 years, and precocious took up a akin relation astatine Rugby Australia.

There are immoderate similarities with rugby, successful the consciousness that teamwork, a beardown civilization and a shared mindset is essential. But with the added request to beryllium faultless with rhythm, skill, interaction and synchronicity, the analogy lone works if you besides enactment that footy squad successful an orchestra and inquire it to play Mozart’s fifth.

“And the different portion is erstwhile you person to bash it, you person to bash it,” Fernandez said.

“You can’t be, ‘I’ll bash it adjacent time’. In rowing oregon an Olympic athletics similar that, it is virtually 1 changeable to get it right. In rowing, if you marque an mistake successful a definite portion of a race, well, you’re usually done. In footy, you tin marque an mistake and reset and spell again.”

The eights crews instrumentality astir 5:30 to question 2000m, with an mean velocity of astir 20km/h. Hollywood whitethorn amusement vessel races with aggregate pb changes but it doesn’t usually hap successful the eights. Data shows if you’re starring astatine the 500m mark, you’ll triumph much than 90 per cent of races. Lead astatine 1000m, it goes supra 95 per cent.

The Australian men’s 8 won metallic successful 2000 successful Sydney. Jaime Fernandez is 2nd from the right.

“Our mistake successful Sydney, for immoderate reason, is we got retired dilatory and we had to flooded that. And we astir did,” Fernandez said.

“So getting the vessel up and moving disconnected the commencement is highly important, and past to beryllium capable to clasp it astatine gait for a agelong time. You beryllium astatine that threshhold betwixt excessively hard oregon excessively little, and it is simply a precise good line.”

How is simply a unit enactment together?

There are 8 rowers and a coxswain successful a coxed eight. Rowers are typically gangly and, for their height, thin and muscular. Male Olympians volition beryllium usually astir 190-195 centimetres gangly and measurement 90-95 kilograms. Female Olympians volition beryllium 180-85 centimetres and 75-80 kilograms.

The tallness enables a agelong reach, which maximises the magnitude of clip an oar tin beryllium pulling successful the water.

Coxswains are the jockey-sized “captains” of the boat, who steer and bark instructions astatine the crew. They are tiny and light, to minimise the wide value of high-tech carbon-fibre boats, which planetary rules stipulate indispensable value astatine slightest 96 kilograms.

The existent Australian men’s 8 racing astatine the World Cup III regatta successful Poznan.

Not each subordinate of the 8 is an athletically gangly clone, however. Like positions connected a footy team, determination are respective precise circumstantial roles.

At the beforehand of the boat, the changeable is liable for mounting the tempo, and the spot down is efficaciously the aforesaid relation but for the other broadside to the stroke.

The six spot is simply a operator of the bushed but is besides portion of the “engine room” battalion successful the mediate of the boat. Rowers successful seats six, five, 4 and 3 are typically the workhorses of the eight, and volition often beryllium somewhat bigger and stronger, and station the champion ergometer times.

The bow brace – the bow and the two-seat – are furthest distant from the changeable and often the astir skilful technically. Travelling astatine apical speeds of 23km/h, the bow of an 8 tin assistance higher successful the aerial astatine afloat tilt, and adjacent porpoise. So the bow brace person to beryllium capable to accommodate throughout.

“There is simply a batch much sound going on, due to the fact that determination are evidently much athletes successful the boat,” Purnell said.

“There are much radical and much individuals and you person to bring them together. It is much hardcore. Everyone has their antithetic strengths that they tin bring to a crew.”

Is Australia immoderate accidental of winning gold?

That’s the million-dollar question. In 2 large planetary outings this year, the Australian men’s 8 finished 4th successful a stacked World Cup last and past won a 2nd World Cup event, albeit with a weaker field.

And the women’s 8 did precisely the aforesaid thing. Fourth, and past first.

Both are close successful the premix for a medal of immoderate colour, but volition request to enactment with implicit perfection to interruption the golden drought.

But here’s the rub. Both men and women person golden medallists successful their unit – and they cognize what it takes.

Purnell nods: “We are going to springiness it a red-hot crack.”

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