How do you get eight Amazons to row in perfect unison at 24km an hour? The cox of the Olympic crew tells Editor at Large Louise Evans the secret to their synchronicity.
Hydro heaven for Hayley Verbunt is when her boat of eight Olympic rowers is gliding so fast and smoothly that she can almost hear the bubbles as the water swooshes past.
“We call it listening to the bubbles,” the 21-year-old Paris-bound cox said.
“You can almost feel and hear that sensation of the water flowing past with no disruption.
“Visually you want to be seeing unity when the eight blades become one, entering and exiting the water in one motion. That’s when you know everyone is applying force at the same time, creating the same amount of power.
“It’s a very cool sensation. The bow and the stern are sitting on top of the water, almost gliding along the top, cutting through the water like a ski. You can feel that surge and listen to the bubbles.
“What we are chasing is that sensation at race pace against the best crews in the world. And if everything went silent – you’d hear the bubbles.”
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/25164601/IMG_0852-1024x853.jpeg)
Verbunt is 55kg of brawny brain. As the cox of eight Olympic medal contenders, she’s the boss of her boat, the trusted captain who keeps her Amazons rowing in sync at 24km per hour race pace.
As part of her job Verbunt also has to be strong enough to remain as motionless as an Easter Island rock statue as her boat flies across the waves.
“I’ve definitely been called the brains of the crew,” she said. “I think about the cox as being like a jockey. You have to be as lean as possible, there’s weight restrictions (maximum 55kg) but you also need to be strong too in order to maintain stability.
“I have to sit as still as possible in a jolting chair so you have to be strong through your core to be stable and stationary and use your feet to provide added stability through your legs.
“If you don’t have enough strength to maintain that you can end up with whiplash because of how fast the boat is going. And if you are flailing around you end up with bruises on your back and a sore neck.”
It’s no secret how this lean 169cm slip of an athlete came to be the cox commanding a formidable crew that includes Olympic and world champions and world record holders.
Rowing Australia CEO and world championship rowing silver medallist Sarah Cook said they were “firmly focused on winning Australia’s first ever Olympic medal in the event, following the bronze medal winning performance by Australia at the world championships last year”.
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/25164553/IMG_0853-1024x767.jpeg)
Verbunt concurs. “If there is a time to do it – that’s now. The list of podiums and accolades in the crew is unmatched … we are that crew who can stand in the middle of that podium in Paris.”
Their biggest competition at the Olympics will be the top contenders from the 2023 world championships: 1. Romania | 2. USA | 3. Aus | 4. UK | 5. Canada.
At the final World Cup III in Poznan before the Olympics, Australia won the eight ahead of Romania and the Netherlands.
The Paris course is likely to be more challening – rough and choppy – but Verbunt, who’s studying commerce at Melbourne University, has proved she can keep her head in tough conditions.
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/25164548/IMG_0854-1024x529.jpeg)
She started rowing at Firbank Girls’ Grammar School in Melbourne where a surplus of talent created a brutal selection trial.
“I was in year eight so I was 13-14 years old. They needed 30 girls and about 60 signed up. So there was a three-day trial. Everyday we did a 500m ergo (rowing machine) test. Everyone’s scores were ranked and the results were put on the board.
“If your name was in grey at the bottom it meant your ergo score was not good enough and you’d be cut. I realised I was not going to be fast enough so I put my hand up to become a cox rather than get cut. That was the harsh reality. It was something I wanted to be part of anyway I could.
“I love the sense of belonging that rowing brings, that feeling that you are contributing to something bigger, that sense of teamwork needed to make the boat go fast.”
Being the youngest member of the entire Australian Olympic rowing team – male or female – Verbunt is acutely conscious of what she needs to bring to her boat.
The key ingredients are a deep knowledge of her sport, technical, tactical and mechanical expertise, intuitive sight and touch in the boat, respect and trust of coaches and crew and good communication “otherwise you are dead weight, a sandbag in the back of the boat”.
![](https://sportshounds.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_0855-1024x767.jpeg)
“I pride myself on being able to walk that thin line between liaising with the coach and the rowers and not tipping too far in either direction,” she said.
“You need to understand the emotions and feelings of the crew and have their trust. You also have to have the respect of the coaching team and understand the technical framework they are trying to achieve and that added layer of analysis and data.
“The cox is the coach in the boat and what we’re trying to do is marry our heads and hearts. The head is the technical execution. The heart is the willingness to drive as hard as you can.
“For us it’s about nailing that marriage of head and heart, to be the most technically efficient and willing to find that extra heart to keep digging for each other to get on that podium.”
It’s not just what Verbunt communicates to her crew about what’s happening in the boat and during the 2,000m race, but the tone she uses – from a gentle whisper to yelling. Tone helps create cohesion and the speed and stability needed to steer a straight fast course to the finish line first.
![](https://sportshounds.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/IMG_0856-1024x801.jpeg)
When Verbunt wants the crew to stay calm and relaxed even when they are going ballistic, she uses a soft tone. When she needs the crew to surge, to increase speed to match a move made by a rival boat, to give one per cent more when they are in the pain cave and have nothing left to give – she uses a more aggressive tone.
In her soft tone she says “you’re up, you’re moving”. It means the pace is good and the race is going well. The boat is up and out of the water. The hull is moving smoothly. They’re holding speed and rhythm. Gliding. Working as one. One head, one heart. Hearing the bubbles. The podium beckons.
The Paris-bound women’s eight are: Bow – Bronwyn Cox 2 – Paige Barr 3 – Georgie Rowe 4 – Katrina Werry 5 – Jacqueline Swick 6 – Giorgia Patten 7 – Sarah Hawe Stroke – Lucy Stephan OAM Cox – Hayley Verbunt.
Australia has at least six strong rowing podium chances in Paris. You can read about the other Olympic medal contenders here: women’s double sculls | women’s single sculls | men’s eight | women’s coxless four | women’s pair
Louise Evans is an award-winning journalist who has worked around Australia and the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive for media platforms including The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years), The Australian (11 years) and Australian Associated Press (six years in London, Beijing and Sydney).
A women sports’ pioneer, Louise was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor at The Australian. Louise went on to work at six Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and numerous world sporting championships and grand slam tennis events.
Louise is the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring Exhibition and the author and producer of the Passage to Pusan book, documentary and exhibition.
In 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) Queen’s Honour for services to the media and sport and named an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Woman of Influence for services to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 she won a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award plus the NSW Government Community Service Award for her women-in-sport advocacy work.
Discussion about this post