Eleanor Brinkhoff

When walking around the sports fayre at University, Eleanor came across the rowing stand and decided to give it a go. Her grandad had rowed and her introduction to the sport was aged 9, when she coxed his eight whilst visiting him for Christmas in Germany. 

In her first year of University she played netball and rowed socially whenever she could make training. In January she broke her wrist so was unable to play netball, but she could cox. This is when she became more involved with the rowing team including coxing BUCS head.

Once she graduated from the University of Dundee she travelled to Australia for 2 years to coach at Gippsland Grammar School, which was extended due to the pandemic. Here she trained solo, taking a single out and using the school ergs to keep her fitness up and race whenever the school attended regattas.

Towards the end of her time abroad Eleanor started to consider trying high performance rowing and decided she could live with not being good enough but would regret not giving it a go. Back in the UK, she joined Tideway Scullers School in 2021 and a year later moved on to Leander where she trialled for GB for the first time. With some bumps along the way, she finally made the team in December 2023.