Fergus Hamilton learnt to row on a farm dam at Gippsland when he was 12 years old. But his first attempt in a single scull was hastily cut short when he was joined by a snake swimming across the dam.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It clearly didn't deter the now-strapping 200-centimetre 24-year-old, who has recently been selected to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the Australian rowing team.
Hamilton, who calls Jindera home but is based at the Reinhold Batschi National Training Centre in Canberra, will take to the water in the Men's Coxless Four (M4-) events when the Olympics begins from July 28.
He's currently training three times a day, six days a week before the team flies out to the Australian National Training Centre in Varese, Italy next month where they will compete in the Rowing World Cups II and III at Lucerne, Switzerland and Poznan, Poland ahead of the Games.
Hamilton says it's been his dream to be selected for the Olympics.
This quietly spoken, polite young man has already dedicated more than half of his life to rowing.
From that farm dam, Hamilton progressed to the rowing program at Gippsland Grammar before winning a scholarship to row with Melbourne Grammar from year 9.
There he won the prestigious 2016 APS Head of the River in year 11 and travelled to Henley Royal Regatta in England to compete in the Princess Elizabeth Cup - a race both his English-born father and grandfather won.
During his final year at school, Hamilton was selected Captain of Boats and chosen to represent Australia at the 2017 Junior World Rowing Championships in Trakai, Lithuania.
Taking part in the Junior Men's Double Scull with Cormac Kennedy-Leverett from Queensland, the pair won gold and were crowned junior world champions.
The family moved to Jindera in 2014 where Hamilton's mum Louise Allen is still based.
The eldest of three children (he has a sister Tierney, 22, and younger brother Rory, 19, who attended Scots School Albury), Hamilton says he's a country boy at heart even though he's travelled across the world in the pursuit of excellence in his sport.
When he's not rowing there's nothing he loves more than coming home and heading off on a hunting expedition or going fishing for cod.
He says one of his favourite places to row is on the Murray River at Corowa; during school holidays he used to train and compete for Corowa Rowing Club.
Although, he adds, the alligator-laden Canal 54 in Sebastian, Florida comes a pretty close second.
"It's just awesome," he says of the swampy but straight waterway.
As a successful junior rower, Hamilton was pursued by countless US collegiate rowing teams and offered places to study abroad.
"The process included hosting coaches from Yale, Harvard, Washington and Princeton for dinner right here in Jindera," Louise recalls.
Hamilton settled on Yale, which boasts one of the top rowing programs in the US.
So at the age of 18 he headed off alone to study overseas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology in May 2023.
Hamilton enjoyed huge success as a rower in the US, coming away with countless titles and championships.
On every single Yale press release and race program, Fergus Hamilton is listed as coming from Jindera, Australia, Louise says proudly.
She describes her eldest son as an "absolutely lovely person ... who has always been recognised for being very humble, dedicated and lots of fun".
"He has sacrificed so much for his rowing," she explains, describing the many long weekends and school holidays spent at training camps away from home.
"At Yale, he was only able to make it home for a few weeks in summer and for 10 days at Christmas."
But those sacrifices have all been worth it with his selection for Paris - it's his second shot at an Olympics.
Hamilton, who was born in England before the family moved to New Zealand in 2004 and then Australia in 2011, became an Australian citizen in 2021 so that he could be eligible for the Tokyo Olympics.
"Unfortunately his citizenship went through just a little too late and he was named as a non-travelling reserve for the team," Louise recalls.
"Fergus always says he was born in England, programmed in New Zealand and tested in Australia."
From an early age he was a natural athlete and also excelled at water polo, rugby and AFL.
But in the end it was rowing that called to him.
Perhaps it was in the blood, given his father Richard Hamilton represented Great Britain in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and there's a long tradition of rowing on both sides of the family.
But Hamilton says there's just something about being on a boat in the water - and the smooth, flowing rhythmic strokes as you row.
"Coming from a farm and being at boarding school in the city, I would have gone crazy if I didn't have rowing," he admits.
He relishes the camaraderie of his teammates (some of whom he's rowed with since school) and reckons they're a chance at a medal in Paris.
"If we get some good training under way, we'll give it a shot," he says.
Early mornings on the relatively balmy waters of Lake Burley Griffin followed by sessions in the gym and on the erg (rowing machine) is how he spends most of his waking hours.
And it's all fuelled by the breakfast of champions - five Weet-Bix smothered with honey.
"They even bring Weet-Bix over for us (when we go overseas) - it's my go-to," he laughs.
