Three-time Olympic Champion Hamish Bond is one of four new cyclors to join Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) in their bid to win the Auld Mug. The New Zealand sailing team are hopeful Bond’s knack for successful title defences will pay dividends next year at the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain.
The sailing event, which possesses the oldest trophy in international sport, is no stranger to powerhouse rowers adding their heft to grinding teams. Past examples of Kiwi scullers-turned-grinders include Rob Waddell and Joseph Sullivan.
Speaking to Row360 at the time of his (second) rowing retirement, in early 2022, Bond did not believe a shot at the America’s Cup was realistic. “No. Fundamentally, logistically; no.” Quipping, “If they were paying Pete Burling’s skipper wages then, yes, maybe, but [not] if I’m just on grinding wages…”
After hanging up his oar, Bond moved to North Carolina, USA, where his wife, Lizzie, is pursuing a fellowship at Duke University in orthopaedic surgery. In addition to raising his three young children Bond is a volunteer coach at Duke Rowing.
“It is not going to work. They [ETNZ] are going to be based overseas for months on end. My wife has a career, I’ve got kids,” he said having mused, “It probably seems more glamorous than it is but I could give the cycling gig a nudge for the America’s Cup.”
Communication with ETNZ revealed a shot at sailing glory was possible, as the timeline was feasible and allowances would be made for his family setup. Bond was required to pass the brutal pre-Christmas selection process while training alone and testing remotely in America.
The selection process was overseen by Kim Simperingham, the ETNZ trainer, whose job is to find and train the elite athletes capable of outputting the immense power required to drive the systems onboard.
“The two main physical qualities we were looking for are athletes that can sustain a really high power output for the length of a race, up to about half an hour, and athletes that can also achieve really high peaks in power, that will be used for the manoeuvres during races.”
The potential cyclors pushed, “their bodies to their absolute limits”. A combination of short maximum power output tests and longer endurance tests, “gives us an idea of their physical strengths, whether it be the short sprints or the long endurance aerobic work. And then in the end, we compare that to what we’ll need on the boat and end up with a group of cyclors that will carry us through the next couple of years,” said Simperingham.
“What we found was the big guys have the power and endurance as opposed to the smaller guys with huge power to weight ratio who, although highly impressive, struggle to match the overall numbers that bigger guys can output which shows in many of the guys who have been selected.”
