Ollie Cook

Rower // Men's Squad
Date of Birth: 5th Jun 1990 (33 years old)
Club: University of London BC
Height: 194.00
Hometown: Windsor

Ollie Cook profile image

World champion and Boat Race winner Ollie Cook is looking to win a place for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Ollie represented his country as a junior and at U23 level before becoming part of the senior squad in 2012. He won gold in the men’s coxed pair at the 2016 World Rowing Championships.

In 2017, Ollie and his brother, Jamie, were part of the winning Blue Boat crew in the 2017 men’s Boat Race before Ollie returned to full time training with the GB Rowing Team. He rowed in the bow seat of the men’s eight at World Cup III in Lucerne and also the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton.

In 2018, Ollie finished second at the GB Rowing Team Senior, U23 and FISU Trials in an impressive performance with teenage partner and World Junior champion Felix Drinkall.

Having represented his country at junior and U23 level, Ollie is making his mark in the senior ranks and won World Championships gold in 2016

On The Water

2016

World Champion Men's Coxed Pair

2014

European Bronze Medallist Men's Eight

Rio 2016 Olympiad: 2013 – 2016

Cook and Callum McBrierty started the 2016 season in the men’s pair, finishing ninth at the Varese World Cup. They then teamed up with cox Henry Fieldman in the coxed pair for the World Cup in Poznan, where they beat Turkey to gold in a two-boat race. The trio’s fine form continued at the World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam where, after winning their heat and semi-final, they stormed away from the field in the final to win gold by clear water.

Cook was selected as men’s sweep spare for the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, having finished eighth with Stewart Innes as a second GB men’s pair at the World Cup in Lucerne.

He made his first World Cup appearance during the 2013 season and it was a successful one as he won gold with the men’s eight at Eton Dorney. Cook was then selected in a second GB eight in Lucerne, finishing eighth, before making his world championships debut in the men’s pair with James Foad in Chungju, placing seventh overall.

After winning a bronze medal in the eight at the 2014 European Championships in Belgrade, he formed a second GB men’s pair with Phil Congdon at the World Cup in Lucerne, finishing 11th. He was also selected as sweep spare for the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.

Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell, Tom Ransley, Paul Bennett, Oliver Cook, Pete Reed, Constantine Louloudis, Mat Tarrant, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill in the men's eight in 2014

London 2012 Olympiad: 2009 – 2012

Cook – whose GB debut came in the men’s four at the 2008 Coupe de la Jeunesse – raced at the 2012 World U23 Championships in Trakai, finishing just outside the medals in the men’s eight.

He made his senior debut in the same boat at the European Championships later that season, finishing fifth in Varese.

GB Competitive Record

Year Event Position Boat
2019 World Rowing Championships
Linz Ottensheim, AUT
M4-
2019 World Rowing Cup III
Rotterdam, NED
M4-
2019 World Rowing Cup II
Poznan, POL
4 M4-
2019 European Rowing Championships
Lucerne, SUI
M4-
2018 World Rowing Championships
Plovdiv, BUL
2 (FB Final) M2-
2018 European Rowing Championships
Glasgow, GBR
1 (FB Final) M2-
2018 World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
5 M2-
2018 World Rowing Cup II
Linz Ottensheim, AUT
5 M2-
2017 World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
6 M8+
2016 World Rowing Championships
Rotterdam, NED
M2+
2016 World Rowing Cup III
Poznan, POL
M2+
2016 World Rowing Cup I
Varese, ITA
3 (FB Final) M2-
2015 World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
2 (FB Final) M2-
2014 World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
5 (FB Final) M2-
2014 World Rowing Cup II
Aiguebelette, FRA
6 M4-
2014 European Rowing Championships
Belgrade, SRB
M8+
2013 World Rowing Championships
Chungju, KOR
1 (FB Final) M2-
2013 World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
2 (FB Final) M8+
2013 World Rowing Cup II
Eton, GBR
M8+
2012 European Championships
Varese, ITA
5 M8+
2012 Under 23 World Rowing Championships
Trakai, LTU
4 BM8+
Year:
2019
Event:
World Rowing Championships
Linz Ottensheim, AUT
Position:
Boat:
M4-
Year:
2019
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Rotterdam, NED
Position:
Boat:
M4-
Year:
2019
Event:
World Rowing Cup II
Poznan, POL
Position:
4
Boat:
M4-
Year:
2019
Event:
European Rowing Championships
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
Boat:
M4-
Year:
2018
Event:
World Rowing Championships
Plovdiv, BUL
Position:
2 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2018
Event:
European Rowing Championships
Glasgow, GBR
Position:
1 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2018
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
5
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2018
Event:
World Rowing Cup II
Linz Ottensheim, AUT
Position:
5
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2017
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
6
Boat:
M8+
Year:
2016
Event:
World Rowing Championships
Rotterdam, NED
Position:
Boat:
M2+
Year:
2016
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Poznan, POL
Position:
Boat:
M2+
Year:
2016
Event:
World Rowing Cup I
Varese, ITA
Position:
3 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2015
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
2 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2014
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
5 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2014
Event:
World Rowing Cup II
Aiguebelette, FRA
Position:
6
Boat:
M4-
Year:
2014
Event:
European Rowing Championships
Belgrade, SRB
Position:
Boat:
M8+
Year:
2013
Event:
World Rowing Championships
Chungju, KOR
Position:
1 (FB Final)
Boat:
M2-
Year:
2013
Event:
World Rowing Cup III
Lucerne, SUI
Position:
2 (FB Final)
Boat:
M8+
Year:
2013
Event:
World Rowing Cup II
Eton, GBR
Position:
Boat:
M8+
Year:
2012
Event:
European Championships
Varese, ITA
Position:
5
Boat:
M8+
Year:
2012
Event:
Under 23 World Rowing Championships
Trakai, LTU
Position:
4
Boat:
BM8+

More info...

Club: University of London BC
Boat: Men’s Squad
Role: Rower
Coaches: Rob Dauncey
Learnt to Row: Eton Excelsior RC
Original Club(s): Eton Excelsior RC

Beyond the Boat

After finishing at school, Ollie took a gap year to teach in South Africa.  He is a trustee of the Harry Birrell Scholarship Trust, a charity that raises money to pay for disadvantaged children in Grahamstown, South Africa to go to school. In 2011 Ollie was part of the Row Zambezi Expedition. It was the first time anyone had rowed the 1,000km of the Upper Zambezi, starting from near its source on the Angolan/Zambian border and rowing to the Victoria Falls in Zambia.  The expedition raised over £25,000 for Village Water.

While studying international relations and history at the London School of Economics, Ollie founded the LSE Ambassadors for Sport programme which aims to support and fund students at LSE who compete – or aspire to – at an international level in their sport.   He was also entered into the LSE Mr University competition: “Lacking any identifiable talent, I dressed up as a woman and did the Call On Me dance routine – I somehow won.”

After the Rio Olympiad Ollie undertook a masters in Global History at the University of Oxford where he won an academic distinction alongside studying Arabic and training for the Boat Race.  His ideal job is a travel writer and, after the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, he travelled to North Korea. He describes it as “the most astonishing and surreal place I have been to but they were some of the most welcoming and interesting people I have ever met. I even saw someone in a single scull training on the Taedong River through Pyongyang!”

Muhammad Ali, Patrick Leigh Fermor and David Attenborough are his dream dinner companions.