Canberra rower Millie Griffin has been selected to compete in the Youth Olympics this year. Photo: Supplied.
The next generation of rowers are embracing a more extreme element of the sport, with shorter races and greater uncertainty.
The Coastal Rowing Beach Sprint format will be on show for the first time in Olympic history at the Youth Olympics in Senegal from 31 October, before being introduced as an Olympic discipline at the 2028 LA Games.
Beach Sprint sees rowers run to the boat, row 250 metres, navigate turning buoys in the ocean, and race back 250 metres for a sprint to the finish.
Canberra rower Millie Griffin competing in the Rowing Beach Sprints. Photo: Supplied.
One athlete who has seized the moment is 16-year-old Canberra Girls Grammar School student Millie Griffin.
Millie’s dominant performance in winning four gold medals at the Oceania and Australian Beach Sprint Championships in Queensland earlier this year qualified her for a place on the Australian team for the Youth Olympics, with the rowing events taking place in Dakar.
Millie will compete in the beach sprint single scull and the mixed double with Brisbane’s Alex Watt.
The path to this point for the Year 10 student has included regattas on traditional flat-water courses at Henley in the UK, as well as Nationals in Tasmania, New Zealand and Sydney.
The Youth Olympics, though, would be the ultimate in her four-year journey in rowing.
Millie Griffin has a big future ahead of her. Photo: Supplied.
Says Millie, “I don’t think it will sink in until Dakar! At the moment I’m just continuing the hard training I’ve been doing through winter. I’m really excited and so grateful for all the support I’ve had from my coaches, teachers and family”.
Millie’s organisational skills have also been put to the test as she balances study with a burgeoning rowing career.
Her training regime each week is demanding, with six sessions on the water, three strength and conditioning workouts, alongside cross-training and Pilates.
“I have to be organised and work closely with my teachers to make sure I can still get my work done. Canberra Girls Grammar School runs an athlete development program to support students balance school work and performance sport.”
Millie’s progress, just four years after taking up rowing, is also a testament to CGGS’s coaching system, with Caz Pijpers inspiring many young women to take up rowing. Millie attributes much of her success to both Caz and beach sprint coach Kendall Brodie.
Elite sportspeople also develop a mindset, and Millie clearly has one.
“I’m normally pretty relaxed and easy-going,” says Millie
“Before the race starts, I stay calm and relaxed and focus on everything I’ve done in training, but when I’m racing, I’m definitely competitive and locked in.”
Training for Coastal Rowing on the flat waters of Lake Burley Griffin is not foreign, with several surf lifesaving crews training on the lake over the years for surf boat racing.
John and Jeannette Gasson’s Coastal Rowing course, being developed at Black Mountain Peninsula, will be of enormous benefit to Millie, with aspirations of competing at the Brisbane Olympics.
“I would absolutely love the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, but I’m just focusing on one step at a time.”
And that next step is just over a month away in Senegal.
