Olympic move: Why rowers will escape the athletes' village in bid for Paris gold

Rowing Australia chief executive Sarah Cook described the Olympic and Paralympic Games teams as some of the "strongest ever" at a mini farewell for some of the athletes in Canberra on Wednesday.

That feeling was reflected by data analysts at Gracenote, who last week predicted the Olympic rowing team would return home with five medals. That would be an overall increase of one medal for the rowers, but with no gold medals in their pockets.

As a former Olympic rower, Cook knows the pitfalls of delving too deep into predictions and data.

But she is confident the group of athletes she is sending to Paris will rise to the challenge, and Rowing Australia has booked out a hotel closer to the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium to eliminate some of the Olympic challenges.

The rowing course is about 40 minutes away from the athletes village. By moving their base closer to the course, athletes will be able to avoid traffic problems, long bus rides and schedule clashes.

It's all part of a plan to ensure the athletes are given the best possible preparation and opportunity to chase gold-medal dreams.

"I want our athletes to have a life's-best experience," Cook said. "You want them to achieve their dreams and I'm so proud of them all because I've lived it, my family lived it and I know what it takes.

"Now it's about wanting to ensure that we can support our team in the best way possible. My hope is they can just get on the water, train and not have to think about much.

"This is high performance sport. We shouldn't shy away from being excellence and for achieving goals. If you speak to any of our athletes, they have those [medal] ambitions for themselves.

"That's what I'm invested in helping them achieve. They want to win Olympic and Paralympic medals, and I want that for them as well. You can't have performance without pressure ... that is part of it. It's about how we support our people so they can deal with those moments when they're under a lot of pressure on the biggest stage in the world."

The rowing squad will relocate to Europe in the coming weeks before a final team announcement closer to the Olympics.

There is growing expectation after strong results in Tokyo three years ago, where the men's and women's four won gold, and the men's and women's quadruple sculls won bronze.

This time the women's eight, the men's four and the pair of Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre are tipped to win silver, while the men's eight and Tara Rigney in the single sculls have been earmarked for bronze-medal performances.

There are a host of Paralympic athletes - including former Canberra rugby player Nikki Ayers - who are also expected to feature in the medals.

Cook, a two-time Olympian from Beijing and London, is taking the reins for the first time in a different leadership role role after being unveiled as Rowing Australia's first female chief executive last year.

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"We have probably one of our strongest ever Australian rowing teams now," Cook as she rattled off a dozen individuals and teams who will be in the Olympic and Paralympic mix.

"In this role I do the opposite of looking after myself, recovery is not a factor. It's a 'whatever it takes' mentality. It's totally different to being an athlete.

"I have my role and responsibility as a chief executive and we're a federally-funded sport, with KPIs from the Australian Sport Commission.

"The other part of it is the real personal investment and wanting to ensure we can support the team."