Meaghan's Story
Tasmanian Meaghan Volker made her Olympic debut in Rio as a part of the women’s eight. The crew had only two weeks to prepare for their Olympic campaign, after the Russian boat was banned from competing at the Games.
In their first heat, the Aussies flew out of the start in a bid to chase down favourite USA, as well as Netherlands and Romania. The crew of Fiona Albert, Jessica Morrison, Alexandra Hagan, Meaghan Volker, Molly Goodman, Olympia Aldersey, Lucy Stephan, Charlotte Sutherland and coxswain Sarah Banting made a competitive start however with limited race preparation managed a fourth place finish. The boat required a top four finish in the repechage to qualify for the A-final. As they approached the final 500 metres, the top four crews pulled ahead and the Australians were left to finish fifth in what was a valiant effort for a crew that had only been training together for 10 days.
Volker returned to Australia in 2015 and began rowing with the women’s eight after three years in the USA where she rowed and studied at UCLA.
The Buckingham RC athlete, who is coached locally by Neil Stump, was twice named an All American rower, 2nd Class in 2013 and 1st Class in 2014.
Her first international event in the Australian eight crew came at the World Rowing Cup 3 2015. She went on to compete at the 2015 World Championships where Australia finished second in the B Final.
