Jack Hargreaves

Fast Facts

Sport: Rowing
Event: Men’s Four 
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020 (gold)  
Coach: Rhett Ayliffe (Head Coach) 
Highlights: Gold medal at Tokyo 2020; Winning back-to-back gold medals in the Men’s Fours World Championships 
Year Born: 1993
Born: Wellington
Junior Club: St. Joseph’s College (Hunters Hill, NSW)

About Jack

Following the disappointment of Olympic exclusion ahead of the Rio Olympic Games, Jack Hargreaves made his Olympic debut at Tokyo after an extremely successful four years with the Australian Rowing Team. 

As part of a Men’s Four crew regarded as the flagship program for the Australian Rowing Team,  Hargreaves collected top honours in the 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Championships, with the former being the first Australian victory in the boat class for 26 years. 

Hargreaves continued the Men’s Four momentum in 2019, with the St. Joseph’s product helping his crew to claim gold once again, this time at World Rowing Cups 2 and 3. 

Elevated levels of success for Hargreaves was precipitated by an invitation to the Reinhold Batschi National Training Centre, where under the tutelage of Ian Wright, Mark Prater and Ian Randell, the Nyngan, NSW native relished exposure to the top competitive environment in the nation, as well as the best facilities to optimise success in Tokyo. 

At the Games, held in July 2021, Hargreaves won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the Men's Four.  Hargreaves joined Alexander Purnell, Spencer Turrin and Alexander Hill for a famous victory that saw Australia reclaim the title from the British who had been Olympic Champions for the past five Olympic Games, while breaking Australia's run of three consecutive Olympic silver medals in this boat class.

The crew were commanding in their Heat but were pushed to their limits in the Final. Their 1.62 seconds lead with 500-metres to go was ultimately reduced to just 0.37 of a second with the Aussies winning in an Olympic best time of 5 minutes 42.76 seconds from Romania and Italy. Fittingly, the result came almost 25 years to the day since Australia last won gold in this race at Atlanta 1996 and was part of ‘the hour of power,’ a moment in time when Australia’s Men’s and Women’s Fours stormed home for gold and the Men’s and Women’s Quadruple Sculls claimed bronze. The four medals won over the course of an hour by Australian rowing crews, along with swimmer Ariarne Titmus' gold medal in the 200 metres freestyle, contributed to the most successful period in the history of the Australian Olympic Team.