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FEATURE
A natural fit
Great Britain’s silver medal-winning crew at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tom Stallard is second left in the back row
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
Tom Stallard (N 97) tells Simon Redfern (Sc 75) about his varied sporting career as an Olympic rower and a Formula One engineer
There have been OO Olympic medal-winning rowers and OO Formula One engineers in the past – but Tom Stallard (N 97) can rightly claim to be the first OO to combine both sports so successfully.
Not only did the 40-year-old Londoner win an Olympic silver medal in the Beijing Games in 2008, but he has also been Race Engineer for the likes of British great Jenson Button.
Rowing was a passion of Tom’s from a long way back – to Third Form at Oundle, in fact, when he started the sport simultaneously at the School and at Broxbourne Rowing Club.
“I was coached a fair bit by my father in the holidays, but also at
school by Richard Backhouse and Tony Cowley,” Tom recalled.
“Richard coached me in the Fourth and Fifth Forms, and then took me to the GB national team trials in the school holidays while I was in the Lower Sixth. TC coached me throughout the Sixth Form. I was also coached by Dan Innes in Upper Sixth and he and I are still good friends now.”
Tom was so keen that he used to sneak out after prep with Peter Holt (B 96) and Rik Fulton (St A 96) to do extra ‘ergos’ in the boatshed.
“Looking back, I am pretty sure my Housemaster, Mr Burrows, knew full well what I was up to, but turned a blind eye,” he said. “Hardly the worst rebellion anyone has had at the
School, I’m sure!”
The extra work paid off, though, as
he won selection for the Junior World Championships when he was in the Lower Sixth and finished fifth in the coxless four on his debut.
From Oundle, it was on to Cambridge University and he went straight into the Blue Boat, competing in four Boat Races between 1999 and 2002, and winning twice – in 1999 and 2001.
“Although I had been to the Junior Worlds while still at school, the Boat Race is a massive step up in terms of pressure,” he remembered.
“My most memorable was my first, partly because we won against the odds, but also because I remember being so shocked by the scale of the