Life after Olympic Gold
My search for the insightful and inspirational side of James Cracknell turns out to be an impromptu meeting with the rowing legend. “If you want an interview you’ll have to wing it, mate” are his first words as I catch him ten minutes before he is scheduled to deliver a talk on his new book. This does not turn out to be a problem, however. After all, he is a man used to getting things done quickly.
He picked up a coxless four gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and another at Athens in 2004. In February this year, he finished third in a trans-Atlantic rowing race from the Canary Islands to Antigua with TV Presenter Ben Fogle, after which he officially retired from professional rowing. His most recent quest is the publishing of his book, entitled The No-Gym Health Plan which was released weeks ago.
Having been a star guest for ITV’s coverage of this year’s Boat Race, Cracknell is familiar with the ins and outs of the Oxbridge rowing circuit. The victorious Oxford crew spent the entire academic year leading up to the event studying in tandem with a gruelling training regime, with no fewer than 12 outings a week. Cracknell faced an even tougher preparation programme for the Athens Olympics.
Back then, he trained seven days a week and had one day off every six weeks • the only two consecutive days’ respite being Christmas Day and Boxing Day. For the likes of Oxford rowers such as Barney Stephens and Jamie Schroeder, however, the demands of attaining a peak level of fitness and strength in time for the race had to be juggled with their academic commitments, something that Cracknell admires: “Some of those guys are on bloody hard courses.
The people who come here are intelligent enough, and if you want to concentrate purely on sport then you go to Loughborough! If you want to row in the boat race then obviously you come to Oxbridge, but then if you come here you’ve got to live up to academic standards.” The gold-medalist was adamant that studying at Oxford or Cambridge leads to gaining a prestigious degree, and thus the two universities should not be seen as places of sporting development.
‘If you row well, you row’, it seems. Much has been made in the press about Boat Race rowers being ‘fast-tracked’ through soft degrees so that bragging rights on the Thames can be acquired, and Cracknell was quick to rubbish such sentiments. “That’s not what it’s about. I take it social studies isn’t an option here! I mean, that would be crap and not a fair way to run the Boat Race.
Cracknell may command a towering presence, but there is one person on the Oxford rowing arena that has gone one better than him in the height department. Cracknell heaped his praise upon Schroeder, the tallest rower in this year’s race at 6’ 7”.
The giant American has attained somewhat of a hero status since Boat Race success as well as recent glory at the Ranstaad International Competition in Amsterdam, and this felt like a good a point as any to ask Cracknell what makes the ‘perfect rower.’ “Being bloody tall like him is helpful!” he exclaimed. “Personally, I’d like to have been a couple of inches taller. Age is just as important. If you’re not in by the age of twenty-two, you’ve got no chance.
After what has been a glittering career for the robust and muscular Olympian, Cracknell claims that he will take one of the conventional routes open to him, such as sports marketing. The release of his recent book is a sign that he may plunge into the realms of stationary occupation.
But rowing in the nude for 2,931 miles across uncharted ocean and cheating fate after surviving a horrendous capsize earlier this year, expect eccentricity and boldness to feature prominently in whatever he does next.
18th May 2006