Canberra Olympian Sarah Cook has been added to the Rowing Australia board after winning election at the annual general meeting last week.
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Cook, who partnered Kim Brennan at the 2008 Olympic Games, will join as a Rowing Australia director alongside Georgia Beattie.
The Rowing Australia annual general meeting also led to Nick Green, Noel Donaldson, Doug Donoghure and Katherine Bennett being awarded life membership.
Meanwhile, Georgie Rowe initially wanted to represent Australia in Olympic kayaking but discovered she was even faster going backwards than forwards.
Inspired by her two-time Olympic kayaking aunt Shelley Oates-Wilding, Rowe had her heart set on representing Australia in that discipline.
But after school the Sydneysider discovered surfboat rowing and then in 2017 still-water rowing discovered her.
In a stunning rise, the 27-year-old went from casual weekend rower to winning silver at last year's world championships as part of the Australian women's eight.
Guided by 1984 Olympic silver medallist and UTS rowing club coach Tim McLaren, who was also originally a surfboat rower, Rowe set Tokyo as her goal.
"I was going once a week, sporadically, down to UTS at the end of 2016 and early 2017 and they knew I was keen to knuckle down once the surfboat season had finished," Rowe told AAP.
"Tim is really the only other person I know who's gone from surfboats to still-water cause most go the other way for a bit of fun.
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"He was pretty quick when I got there to ask me if I wanted to go to the Olympics and I said 'yes', and so it was pretty specific training and very focused."
The coronavirus has put the Olympics on hold for a year but Rowe said it could work in her favour as she continued to gain experience in the sport.
"Put me in a single scull and there will be under 18s who will go past me," said Rowe, who also works as a nurse.
"I'm confident in my ability as an athlete and my head space and my physical ability ... but I'm still learning.
"I feel confident in the middle of an eight but the smaller boats are tricky."
She said that her surfboat mindset - being prepared for waves - was a strength during racing.
"People get stressed out about racing and I'm thinking, 'there's no six foot waves coming at you - you've just got to get from A to B as quickly as possible'."
Rowe has embraced the coronavirus confinement, claiming her fourth indoor world rowing record since the shutdown.
She's now the indoor world and Australian record holder for women aged 19-29 in the four minute category, 5,000m, half marathon and marathon.
The four minute record came about after she was spurred on by her brother Jason, who is a Australian champion surfboat rower.
"He was geeing me up a bit and I hadn't even warmed up so I jumped on and thought I'd give it a go," she said.
- AAP
