A start-up-style capital raising round for a new app and a $5m philanthropic fund spearheaded by Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott form the basis of Rowing Australia chief executive Sarah Cook’s strategy to shore up her sport’s financial future.
Cook, a two-time Olympic rower, will soon mark a year in her role and will head to the 2024 Paris Olympics hopeful of several medal chances for the sport – traditionally one of the better performers across the entire Australian Olympic team.
But as an Olympic sport CEO, Cook admits that she has to already be planning for rowing’s future post Paris while hoping there are no dramas during the competition.
“In many respects for us operationally Paris is done and now it’s down to the athletes, coaches and the team there,” she tells The Weekend Australian in her first major interview.
“But for me, and our performance director, we have one eye on Paris in case things go off the rails … but really for us it’s about what’s our investment for the next Olympic (four-year) cycle, what’s our major decisions around talent and strategy and structure and all of that. So that’s really what we’re fully into now.”
Like just about every other Olympic sport, rowing is heavily reliant on federal government funding – grants from the Australian Sports Commission make up more than half of its annual $20m revenue.
The rowers also have the backing of billionaire Gina Rinehart, whose Hancock Prospecting spends several million dollars annually paying the athletes directly and also sponsoring the sport – and volleyball, swimming and artistic swimming – via Hancock and brands like her Bannister Downs dairy. Cook says Mrs Rinehart’s support is crucial, but it doesn’t necessarily mean rowing is ever flush with funds.
“We’re in a sector where funding drives strategy, not the other way around,” she said. “You know, I’d love to be in a situation where strategy can drive funding or expenditure, but it’s just not the reality of our world and Olympic sport. We’re extremely lucky that we have such an amazing partnership with Hancock Prospecting and Mrs Rinehart as our patron which gives us the capability to make some decisions around strategy. (But) we do rely heavily on government funding.”
Which is why Cook, 39, has several plans to diversify rowing’s revenue base, tap into a wider interest in rowing as a form of exercise and also the sport’s wealthy or well-connected alumni.
Rowing Australia has built the Row Nation app, a fully owned subsidiary that it transferred about $473,000 during the 2024 financial year to establish and for which it is raising another $500,000 from “family and friends” of rowing, says Cook.
“We’re pretty well there with that and then we’re aiming for another $1m in another (formal fundraising) round,” she said. “We’re planning to formally launch it just after the Olympics and hopefully ride the wave of success we have at the Games.”
Row Nation is a digital indoor rowing training platform for consumers and enthusiasts to use on rowing machines found in gyms, hotels and homes, and includes instructions and competitions.
Cook hopes it promotes a link to the sport and increases participation levels, and will “bring rowing to a new and diverse cohort of people”. “There’s really no workout like it but probably hasn’t had the reach and the branding that it probably needed to be able to get it out there and promoted as such,” Cook adds, admitting that rowing has been seen as more of a private school sport with high barriers to entry.
That background should help though with rowing’s philanthropic efforts, having established the Rowing Australia Foundation in March chaired by Rob Scott, the Wesfarmers CEO and former Olympian rower who recently stepped down as RA chairman after a decade in the role.
“We figured Rob has some extra time on his hands now,” Cook says with a laugh. “But it will effectively be like a Future Fund and it is off and running. We will look to build that up and it will contribute specifically to our high-performance program, and be tax deductible through the Australian Sports Foundation. We’ve got a target of eventually building that up to $5m.”
Cook herself did not come from a private school background but rather a talent identification path that led to her competing at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics during an almost decade-long national team career. She later worked as a coach, a rowing club president, and then high-performance operations manager at Sailing Australia, and was chief operating officer at Rowing Australia before being appointed CEO in June last year.
Cook says her background has given her a good understanding of sport’s federated model and the need to manage state-based groups – “we’re about two weeks out from the Olympics and I’ve just had a meeting with our states about rebuilding our event technology system”, she notes – and government organisations.
“We are at the whims of government and political objectives, in terms of high-performance sport and how the government of the day is thinking about funding. But saying that we’re in a fortunate position in that I think our country understands and values the role of sport and high-performance sport and that virtuous circle. So we do benefit from that,” Cook says when asked about government funding and how a sport like rowing has to pay for top-level athletes while also trying to grow its participation base.
Cook says she welcomes the federal government’s recent announcement of $283m funding package, but says it is now time for Olympic sports and government to have a wider discussion about the right level of support as the Brisbane 2032 Olympics looms.
“Ultimately, if Team Australia doesn’t perform in Brisbane, it will not be seen as a success by the Australian people,” she said.
“We all need to work together in what is a resource-constrained environment, work out how we can best support the sports … the athletes and coaches. How do we all ensure that they get to Brisbane 2032 with the best opportunities before them and in the best shape possible; that’s a conversation we all need to have.”
