Australia’s most successful Olympic boat with seven medals has a powerful new crew. Senior correspondent Mike Osborne talks to their fearless gold medal-winning leader Alex Hill.
The enduring legacy of the Oarsome Foursome is powering Australia’s new-look coxless four in their quest for yet more gold at the Paris Olympics.
Consecutive gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympics made the Oarsome Foursome a household name and created a dependable brand. Over the last three decades the men’s coxless four has come home with an Olympic medal from seven Games.
Towering South Australian rower Alex Hill, 31, was a member of the boat that won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, plus he helped secure silver at the 2016 Rio Games. Not surprisingly given his elite CV, he’s been selected to lead the next generation seeking more fame and glory in Paris.
“The Oarsome Foursome set the precedent for us,” Hill said. “They are guys we definitely look up to. We know the legacy they have created. We want to emulate what they did, but do it in our own way.”
Hill was the stroke driving the coxless four that included Jack Hargreaves, Spencer Turrin and Alex Purnell to victory at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Hargreaves, Turrin and Purnell have since moved to the eight boat for the 2024 Games, leaving Hill to lead the new recruits in Paris. They are Olympic debutants Fergus Hamilton, 24, and Jack Robertson, 26, along with an experienced former member of the eight Tim Masters, 32.
“It’s been a nice experience this year with a new crew, like a breath of fresh air,” says Hill. “We started the project in March with some very strong lads.
“We’ve been improving in leaps and bounds to put ourselves in a good position heading into Paris. Fingers crossed we’ll be aiming for another gold medal. We’ll certainly be having a crack.”
Using this year’s World Cup series to build speed and understanding, they surprisingly won their first race together as a crew beating Great Britain in a heat.
They went on to finish the series with an impressive silver medal in Poznan, Poland, finishing behind New Zealand, but again ahead of the Brits in windy conditions expected to mirror what they’ll encounter in Paris.
“We’ve had good improvement while we’ve been over in Europe,” Hill says. “We’ve been making big jumps and have unlocked new levels in what we can do. We’re definitely happy with our boat speed.”
But Hill, also a dual world champion in the four, knows it will take more than strength and speed to be successful in Paris and emulate both his Tokyo feat and that of the Oarsome Foursome.
“I try to give them some guidance about the opposition and the race tactics because I know the four like the back of my hand having been in it for so long,” he says.
“Obviously Australia had a lot of success with the Oarsome Foursome. It was a humbling experience to be selected into that four in 2015. Since then I’ve been trying to work out how to keep moving the thing as fast as we can.”
It’s been an amazing journey for the former footballer and basketballer who started rowing in year 11 at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide.
“I was doing some work in the school gym for footy and basketball one afternoon when the rowing coach came in,” says the 191cm tall Hill.
“He saw me on the rowing machine and said he thought I’d be okay in a boat because I was tall. He asked me to come down and give it a go.
“My sister had taken up rowing when she went to school so I knew a little bit about the sport, but not that much. Still, I went down to the boat shed the following week and jumped in. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
The Oarsome Foursome played a large role in his motivation because their success gave rowing a massive profile in Australia.
Nick Green, Mike McKay, James Tomkins and Andrew Cooper won the gold medal at Barcelona in 1992 and doubled up at Atlanta in 1996 with Drew Ginn replacing Cooper. Ginn also won silver with a new look four combination at the London 2012 Games.
The men’s four is Australia’s most successful boat at all Olympic Games across three decades with three gold medals, three silver medals and bronze – narrowly beating the men’s single sculls with three gold and two silvers all won between 1928 and 1956.
“Growing up as a kid when I first started rowing, having seen the success of these guys in the Oarsome Foursome was a massive driving factor,” Hill says.
Australia’s coxless four Olympic medals
| Olympics | Year | Medal |
|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 1992 | Gold |
| Atlanta | 1996 | Gold |
| Sydney | 2000 | Bronze |
| Beijing | 2008 | Silver |
| London | 2012 | Silver |
| Rio | 2016 | Silver |
| Tokyo | 2020 (2021) | Gold |
“I also enjoyed the teamwork and camaraderie of rowing. I had a bit of early success and got a taste for it. I liked setting myself different goals, making state level, and just enjoying the ride along the way.
“I was in all different boats at State level. We rowed pairs, fours and eights – we did every single boat because it was a different set-up back then.
“But I’ve always enjoyed being in the four and that’s where I’ve always seen myself.”
At his first Olympics in Rio the four fell just short of the Brits, but the defeat was a defining moment.
“We put everything out there that day but were a bit shy of an impressive GB crew,” he says. “Getting that taste for success at the Rio Olympics meant we had the confidence to try to go one better at the next one.
“We were fortunate enough to win a few world champs (2017 and 2018) before Tokyo so we knew we could do it if we got everything right on the day.
“But winning that Olympic gold medal was a sense of achieving the goal. There was a lot of relief and joy and satisfaction when we crossed the line that we’d got the job done.”
Now Hill is determined to do it all over again as Australia heads to Paris with the strongest rowing team ever assembled and up to six medals in their sights.
“We need to work on our race plan and make sure we are a well-oiled unit,” he says. “We are icing the cake now, honing in on those one percenters to find the boat speed we want to take into Paris.
“Basically we’ve got to treat everyone with respect, but just worry about what we are doing and try to get our bow in front and hopefully finish on the top of that dais.”
Whatever the outcome, Hill will be taking a break from rowing in 2025 to attend to his personal life.
“I’m not too sure about the future at the moment but I am definitely going to take a year off to get married,” he says. “I want to spend some time at home with the family in South Australia.
“I will let everything sink in after Paris and then I’ll assess my form and make a decision about the future after that.”
The question he’ll have to ponder is whether to continue the legacy and lead the next gen Oarsome Foursome one more time at the LA Olympics in 2028.
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 pair | women’s eight |
Michael Osborne has been a journalist for more than four decades including 35 years with the national news agency Australian Associated Press, rising from junior reporter to Editor.
He was AAP Editor for 11 years and served four years as Head of Sport and Racing. He was also posted to London and Beijing as AAP’s Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent.
He has worked at six Olympics and five Commonwealth Games, covered tennis grand slams, golf majors, international cricket, rugby world cups and numerous sporting world championships. He also co-ordinated and managed AAP’s teams and coverage at three Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
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