Paris 2024 Olympic champion Hannah Scott is back in Great Britain’s racing line-up for World Rowing Cup I in Seville this weekend, leading a revamped women’s quadruple sculls crew. The Coleraine sculler’s return to World Cup competition comes after a difficult post-Olympic year in which she managed illness, injury and what she describes as an “Olympic comedown.”
“Last year, post-Paris, it was a bit of a building-back year for me, and I was managing a bit of illness and trying to get on top of things,” Scott told BBC Sport NI. “But I think this year I’ve been very clear on what I want to do with the season, and I want to get good, consistent training in and see what I can do.”
Photo Hannah Scott of Great Britain
Building Back
Scott won gold in the W4x at Paris 2024 alongside Lola Anderson, Georgie Brayshaw and Lauren Henry, GB’s first ever Olympic title in the event. The high was followed by a season of rebuilding. Scott says she came back because she didn’t believe she was finished, or that she had reached her full potential.
“I feel like right now, time is moving really quickly, and I find myself in the summer with two years to go to LA, saying to myself, ‘we’re here already’,” she said. “I’m trying to still treasure every moment of being an elite athlete because I won’t be this forever.”
The crew heading to Seville is a different combination from Paris. Scott and Anderson remain from the Olympic-winning boat, joined by 2025 world silver medallist Sarah McKay, a trained nurse who took a sabbatical from work in September 2024 to row full-time at Leander Club, and 22-year-old Finnola Stratton, the reigning Under 23 world champion in the W4x making her senior international debut. British Rowing named 13 crews for the regatta, with 48 athletes travelling to Spain and eight earning their first senior GB cap.
McKay and Stratton bring recent results of their own. McKay won European gold in the quad at Plovdiv last year before claiming world silver in the same boat class. Stratton won GB Rowing Team November Trials in the single scull and impressed enough to earn her place alongside two Olympic champions.
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Back in Charge
Scott made the race-defining calls in the Paris final, when GB edged the Netherlands on the last stroke. She expects the same responsibility in Seville, and says she is more comfortable owning it this time around.
“I’m back to being the boss,” she said. “I feel way more comfortable this Olympic cycle being a leader for the scullers and maybe across the team. Especially in the boat, because I think naturally I fell into that position through to Paris. This time around, I feel more comfortable just saying I’m a leader and being a leader because we do need direction.”
Her definition of leadership is measured. “Good leaders are honest, and they’re not above anyone else,” she said. “I’m very much just another part of the puzzle but I’m happy to share my experience to help others, which is something that I think has been quite helpful this cycle.”
Seville and Beyond
World Rowing Cup I runs from 29–31 May in Seville, the first time the city has international rowing since the 2013 European Championships. Athletes from 37 nations are entered, and the regatta is the first World Cup event before the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam from 24–30 August.
For Scott, Seville is the first competitive test of a quad that could shape GB’s sculling programme through to Los Angeles. The training year, she says, has been the best she has had since Paris.
“I have honestly said every day since Paris, I’ve been grateful to be rowing and doing the job I’m doing because I absolutely love it,” Scott said. “Being an elite sportswoman is just such a cool job and such a cool experience that it can’t last forever and I’m very aware of that. So I’m just enjoying it, for as long as it lasts.”
