Olympic champion Hannah Scott begins her bid for a second world title in Amsterdam after completing what she calls her strongest winter of training, despite a serious breakup during Great Britain’s selection trials.
The Paris champion said her life was “turned upside down” at Christmas, but she kept much of the situation from her crewmates so their concern would not disrupt training. Instead, she sought support from family and friends while separating her personal life from performance.
“In my personal life, I’ve had my hiccups and ups and downs. My life was turned upside down at Christmas time, when I went through a serious breakup and I’ve had to manage that,” Scott said in an interview with BBC Sport.
“But in terms of my life in the boat and training, I’ve managed to keep that all going this year and it shows in terms of my performances.”
The World Rowing Championships run from 24 to 30 August at the Bosbaan, where the event was last staged in 2014. Scott will race in the women’s quad alongside Finnola Stratton, Imogen Grant and fellow Paris Olympic champion Lola Anderson.
Selection Under Strain
The breakup came during trials that helped determine Britain’s crews for the season. Scott decided that protecting her rowing career and her crewmates’ focus required firm boundaries.
“That was the one thing I was really stubborn about,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let anything happening in my personal life impact my rowing and my career which I’ve put so much work towards.”
Scott said she initially did not share much with her crewmates because they might have worried about her during a demanding selection period. She described separating the two parts of her life as a skill developed through elite sport, while acknowledging that the emotional strain remained.
“It’s something you have to train your mind to do,” she said. “It’s the way you manage this job and it’s how you get through at points.”
The winter followed a difficult post-Paris season in which Scott managed illness, injury and what she called an “Olympic comedown”. When she returned to World Cup racing in May, she set consistent training as her priority and took a more explicit leadership role among Britain’s scullers.
She now describes the past winter as her “most successful winter of training so far” and says her experience is becoming “more and more useful” across the British team.
A New Quad Finds Speed
Britain’s current combination first raced together at World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne. It posted the fastest heat time, 6:19.75, before winning the final, then followed that result with victory in the Princess Grace Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
Grant, the Paris Olympic champion in the lightweight women’s double, has moved into the openweight quad for the new cycle. Stratton makes her senior World Championships debut 12 months after winning the under-23 title in the same boat class.
Scott and Anderson provide continuity from Britain’s Paris-winning crew and the world-title combination of 2025. Scott said the new quartet has made a “massive breakthrough” during its final five weeks of preparation.
The Netherlands will race on home water with Tessa Dullemans, Lisa Bruijnincx, Margot Leeuwenburgh and Marieke Keijser, the same combination named in their Amsterdam selection. Germany, Switzerland and a new Irish quad deepen the field.
“The event itself is starting to stack up,” Scott said. “I want to see where that lands and how that lands and hopefully we can display that in what’s going to be an amazing event at this World Championships.”
