A day in the life of a coxswain: video from Rio 2016 rowing test event
What does that little person who sits at the end of the boat shouting really do? Find out with the Brazilian junior team...
The men’s and women’s eights are the only Olympic classes that have a coxswain (Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)
“Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible.”
The phrase above could have been uttered to describe the work of a coxswain in rowing. And in fact, the esteemed person who said it, Stephen Hawking, has fulfilled exactly that role in the sport. One of the greatest physicists of all time, Hawking acted as a coxswain – or cox, as the role is commonly referred to – while at Oxford University in the 1960s, before motor neurone disease left him paralysed. Before his illness, his small frame was perfect for the role of the athlete who sits at the back of the boat, but does not row, instead shouts instructions and encouragement to the crew and steers the boat.
Hawking coxed in an eight-man boat, which today is the only Olympic class that still has a coxswain – both in the men’s and women’s events. From the stands, certainly during the passion of an Olympic Games, it is almost impossible to hear the coxwain’s calls. It could even seem like he is simply a passenger, or the spectator with the best view in the house. But this could not be further from the truth, as our video below shows.
“Without the coxswain, the boat would not flow so well,” says Marco Martins, coach of the Brazilian junior rowing team, in our short film about cox Matheus Rodrigues Nogueira da Silva, filmed during preparations for the World Rowing Junior Championships, which doubled up as the Rio 2016 test event, on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.
Coxswains shout their instructions into a microphone mounted on their heads, with their messages transmitted to the crew via small speakers placed along the boat. He is the only one who can see where they are going – and how far away the finish line is. He is responsible for keeping the crew in rhythm, for observing their rivals and ordering increases and decreases in tempo. He is the voice of the coaching team inside the boat.
Check out our video below (English subtitles available by clicking on the options symbol):
Check out the best images from the Rio 2016 rowing test event:
