Zimbabwean rower Stephen Cox on how fishing created a pathway to the Olympic Games 

Casting a rod often took precedence over pulling an oar but taking up rowing offered the perfect alibi for Stephen Cox to satisfy his fishing obsession.

More than a decade since taking his first strokes in a row boat at Peterhouse Boys' School, less than 100km from the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, Cox is set to make his Olympic debut in Paris 2024 with an oar in hand instead of a fishing rod.

Reaching the Olympics will be a culmination of the rekindling of a dream after the British army rower took a five-year hiatus from the sport. The lance corporal recently claimed one of five Olympic quotas for Zimbabwe in the single sculls at the 2023 World Rowing African Olympic qualification regatta in Tunisia.

“I used to obsess over rowing videos as a kid where I would watch races like five times a day. I used to watch legends like Olaf Tufte, Mahé Drysdale, and Andre Sinek head it up,” Cox said from a cold England days after returning from a visit to blazing Harare.

“I thought, ‘Oh gosh, what it would be like to get to that level!’. And to now be on that TV screen maybe for some other kid to start. It's pretty special to me.”

If selected by his National Olympic Committee, the England-based rower could become only the sixth rower to represent the southern African nation at the Olympic Games in the sport, and it could be second time lucky after he missed out on qualification for Tokyo 2020 (in 2021).

Stephen Cox: Second-time lucky

Four years ago Cox and Peter Purcell-Gilpin tried to qualify for Tokyo in the men’s double sculls boat but fell short in their attempt. In a cruel twist of fate, the duo had to battle it out for a spot in the single sculls with Purcell-Gilpin earning the ticket in a race-off.

Zimbabwe made their first appearance in rowing at the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992 with Susanne Standish-White and Margaret Gibson breaking new ground for the sport in the country in the coxless pairs. Sixteen years had passed before Zimbabwe would again feature in the rowing regatta at the Olympics in Beijing 2008 where Elana Hill finished 25^th in the single sculls.

Four years later in London, James Fraser-McKenzie became Zimbabwe’s first male Olympic rower in the single sculls with Micheen Thornycroft also representing the country in the women’s competition. Thornycroft also made the team for Rio 2016 where she finished in a creditable 11^th place.

Cox looks to follow in the footsteps of Thornycroft as he hopes to, at the very least, reach the A/B finals which could set up a potential fight for a spot in the final.

“I know it's going to be a big ask. But you know, if the conditions are right for me, like if the water gets really rough or something like that. I tend to revel in rough water,” Cox said.

“I don't know if that's just a size thing, but when it's flat and calm, the big boys tend to be able to put down all the horsepower. And then it's a hard race.”

The average five hours of training Cox puts in per day in pursuit of his dream is a far cry from the laissez-faire approach he took when he started. Cox climbed in a boat because his sister practised the sport and for his own dubious reasons.

“I actually figured out that by rowing I could get down to the dam and go fishing, which is my other obsession,” Cox recalled.

“I used to cycle down to the rowing dam and lie to the guards at the gates saying I was going rowing training. I had my fishing rod in my backpack, and I would just fish on the weekends and bunk school.”

Stephen Cox: Getting back into the boat

As it turned out, Cox was also a talented rower and performed well at a national level and regionally competing in regattas across the border in South Africa. Cox represented Zimbabwe at the 2009 World Rowing Junior Championships in France sharing the men's double sculls boat with Fraser-Mackenzie.

Two years later he was selected to compete at the 2011 Under 23 World Rowing Championships in the Netherlands where Cox said he ‘got absolutely hammered’.

“So, I was like, 'Okay, well I'm no good at this sport' because I was just so young, and I had no idea,” Cox said candidly.

“And then I decided to go take a gap year, coached some rugby, and I stopped rowing completely for five years when I joined the military. I had no intention of coming back or anything like that and rowing kind of found me.”

Cox was coaxed into rowing at a regatta in Breda, Netherlands where the bug ultimately bit again despite his hands and body taking a royal beating. He slowly but surely got onto the rowing machine for warmups as part of his cross-training regime.

“The next week I started covering two kilometres, then three kilometres and then eventually I figured that I was basically in rowing training, and I'll just give it a go. I got back into it slowly and steadily. It was a very hard comeback because I mean, five years down the line from when you were a junior, you're still not going as fast as you were, and you're now 25 years old. So, it's taken me seven to eight years to get to this place now.”

The British Army has been supporting Cox in pursuing his Olympic dream giving him leave over the past two cycles to train and race at regattas. In addition, Cox received an Olympic solidarity grant which has provided more funding to cover some of his expenses.

Stephen Cox: The baptism of fire

Cox made his senior debut at the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Florida and has made four more appearances at the global showpiece. He describes his maiden berth as a baptism of fire.

“At the first world champs, I was thinking, 'What is going on here?' And I was giving it everything and they were just 'poof' gone straight away,” Cox said.

“You forget how big everyone is. Like I'm just under six foot two (1.87m) and I'm about the same height as the girls, normally in rowing, the guys are like two metres tall and 100 kilos and that sort of thing.

“And you’ve got to figure out how to compete with that sort of thing. You have to deal with the cards you are dealt. It's taken me some time to figure out how to row the way that makes me faster instead of how it works with everyone else.”

Cox, who is coached by Henley Regatta-winning coach Franz Imfeld, will join his mentor in Sydney, Australia for a few months in the new year in preparation for Paris 2024. Coming close to what he believed was over-racing this season, Cox believes he can go faster heading into the Olympic Games.

And while he is far from hanging up his oars, Cox hopes to not only serve Zimbabwean rowing by flying the flag at international regattas but also ploughing back in years to come. Cox lamented the lack of future stars coming through the ranks and hoped to reignite interest in the sport in the country.

“I'd love to give back to Zim rowing maybe just get a course for one. Once you build the machine, you know, the machine runs itself after a while and people keep going once you have a bunch of them.”