Oliver Cook

Personal information
Nationality	British
Born	(1990-06-05) 5 June 1990 (age 33)
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Rowing
Event(s)	Coxed pair, Coxless four, Eight
Club	University of London Boat Club
Medal record Men's rowing Representing   Great Britain World Championships 2016 Rotterdam Coxed pair 2019 Ottensheim Coxless four European Championships 2014 Belgrade Eight 2019 Lucerne Coxless four 2021 Varese Coxless four

Oliver Robert George Cook (born 5 June 1990) is a British international rower. He is a world champion and an Olympian.

Profile

Whilst in education at Abingdon School he gained colours for the Abingdon School Boat Club eights. In 2007 he rowed across the English Channel to raise money for charity. After leaving Abingdon in 2008 he attended the London School of Economics, ^[1] where he studied International Relations and History.

In 2011 Ollie was part of the Row Zambezi Expedition. It was the first time anyone had rowed the 1,000 km of the Upper Zambezi, starting from near its source on the Angolan/Zambian border to Victoria Falls in Zambia. The Expedition raised over £25,000 for Village Water. He is currently^{[ when?]} studying for a postgraduate diploma in International Development at East Berkshire College. ^[2]

He is the brother of British rower Jamie Cook. ^[3]

Rowing

In 2012 he became part of the British Rowing squad and was selected for the 2012 World Rowing U23 Championships in Trakai, Lithuania. ^[4] The following year he was part of the Men's Coxless Pairs at the 2013 World Rowing Championships with James Foad. The pair won the B Final. ^[5] He won a European Bronze Medal in the Men's Eight at the 2014 European Rowing Championships.

In 2016 he won a Men's Coxed Pair gold medal at the World Rowing Cup in Poznan ^[6] before becoming a world champion in the Men's Coxed Pair during the 2016 World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam with Callum McBrierty and Henry Fieldman. ^[7]

In 2017 he was named in the Oxford eight for the 2017 boat race alongside his brother Jamie and fellow Old Abingdonian Vassilis Ragoussis; a race in which Oxford won. ^{[8] [9]}

At the 2019 European Rowing Championships Cook was part of the team that won the gold medal in the fours. ^{[10] [11]} The crew included his fellow Abingdonian Matthew Rossiter. ^[12] The same crew then won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. ^[13]

In 2021, he won a second European gold medal when winning the coxless four in Varese, Italy. ^[14] At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he appeared for Team GB in the coxless four event. The team finished fourth after veering off course in the closing stages of the final. Cook, who had the responsibility for steering, accepted the blame for the error, ^[15] though it was later pointed out it had not been his fault. ^[16]

See also

• List of Old Abingdonians

References

External links

• Oliver Cook at World Rowing
• Oliver Cook at Olympedia
• Oliver Cook at Olympics.com
• Oliver Cook at Team GB