~The Launch~
“The Boat Race is older than New Zealand as a country” – a Kiwi in Oxford
Tom Mackintosh, the Oxford University Boat Club President for 2025, is a rarity. A President who has never rowed a Boat Race; a man who took Olympic gold in the eight, then moved into the single and won World Championship bronze in the slowest and loneliest of boats. Not many people have sat on an Olympic start line in the biggest and smallest boats. Tom was Olympic champion in the New Zealand eight in Tokyo 2020, before taking some time away from rowing. He returned in the single scull, won World Championship bronze in 2023, and finished fifth in Paris 2024. This unique blend of experiences, Tom believes, sets him up well to lead the athletes at Oxford.
The Boys in the Boat Movie
The Boys in the Boat is a sports drama based on the #1 New York Times bestselling non-fiction book written by Daniel James Brown. The film, directed by George Clooney, is about the 1936 University of Washington rowing team that competed for gold at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. This inspirational true story follows a group of underdogs at the height of the Great Depression as they are thrust into the spotlight and take on elite rivals from around the world. The movie will open in theaters on December 25.
Finding Balance by Philip Doyle
Let me introduce myself, my name is Philip Doyle, a 30-year-old doctor, and rower. For the past five years I’ve been qualified in the NHS and have been on the Irish National Squad for the same amount of time. I have been dipping in and out of both rowing and medicine, but never truly leaving one behind. I want to share a bit of how 2018/19 went for me and how this period was, in retrospect, one of the most difficult times for me that required balance and skills I was unaware I was utilising at the time.
