Samuel Loch (born 26 June 1983) is an Australian former representative

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is ...

. A dual Olympian and two time bronze medal winner at World Championships, he has set and holds world records in indoor rowing with times set on the Concept 2 rowing machine.

Education

Loch began his rowing at The King's School in Sydney and was in the stroke seat of the school's 2001 First VIII which won 28 races from 28 starts including the AAGPS Head of the River. This crew also contained future Australian senior national rowers Nicholas Hudson and Matt Ryan, and went on to win the

Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup The Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup is a rowing event at Henley Royal Regatta open to school 1st VIIIs. History The event was instituted in 1946 for public schools in the United Kingdom. It was opened to entries from overseas in 1964, and th ...

at the 2001

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thr ...

. Loch studied and rowed at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

from which he graduated in 2006.

Club and state rowing

Domestically Loch enjoyed great success as a member of the New South Wales

King's Cup __NOTOC__ King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King Cup (sometimes named King's Cup), Saudi Arabian men's football nat ...

crew. Loch was a member of the crew in 2008 which defeated holders, Victoria, by just 0.21 seconds in a win that saw New South Wales start their own winning streak from 2008 to 2014 inclusive. Loch recorded six wins in this event from 2008 to 2013. His senior club in Sydney was the

UTS Haberfield Rowing Club UTS Haberfield Rowing Club in Sydney was formed as Haberfield Rowing Club in 1925. It has occupied its current site on Port Jackson's, Iron Cove at Dobroyd Point since 1926. The club had a senior and lightweight Sydney premiership & national com ...

International representative rowing

Loch made his Australian team debut at the

2007 World Rowing Championships The 2007 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 26 August to 2 September 2007 at Oberschleißheim Regatta Course near Munich, Germany. Medal summary Men's events Non-Olympic classes Women's events N ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. Competing in the Men's Coxless Four, his crew placed 12th. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

he made his Olympic debut in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

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as part of the Men's Eight crew which placed 6th. Loch continued internationally in the Men's Eight, with a 7th placing at the

2009 World Rowing Championships The 2009 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 23 to 30 August 2009 at Lake Malta, Poznań, Poland. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation), and he ...

in Poznan,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. In 2010 he won his first World Championship medal (Bronze) at the

2010 World Rowing Championships The 2010 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 31 October to 7 November 2010 on Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organised by FISA (the International Rowin ...

Lake Karapiro Lake Karapiro () is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River at Karapiro, south-east of Cambridge in New Zealand's North Island. The lake was formed in 1947 by the damming of the Waikato River to store water for the 96-megawatt Karapir ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. Loch moved into the Men's Coxless Four at the

2011 World Rowing Championships The 2011 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 28 August to 4 September 2011 at Lake Bled in the Slovenian city of Bled. The annual week-long rowing regatta is organized by World Rowing Federation (FISA) ...

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

where he also won a Bronze medal. At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Loch was in the seven seat of the Australian Men's Eight which placed 6th in a thrilling final where all boats finished within a length of each other.

Indoor records

In 2013, Loch took a break from international competition and during this period set a 24-hour tandem world record on the Concept 2 rowing machine (ergometer) with his King's Cup partner Matt Ryan. The pair covered 380.274 kilometres, maintaining an average split of 1:53.6 per 500 metres. The successful world record attempt was also a fundraiser for the Leukaemia Foundation and raised almost $20,000 AUD for the charity. In 2015, Loch placed 2nd at the World Indoor Rowing Championships behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

. Loch is the current world record holder for 1000 metres on the Concept 2 Ski Erg with 2:54.4 set in early 2016. In July 2016, Loch also broke an 11-year-old world record on the Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer for 1000 metres with a time of 2:39.5. In December that year, Loch produced yet another record breaking performance, 'Most Metres Rowed in One Minute' on Concept2 rower, with 425m (a 500m split of 1:10.5).

Personal

Loch is married to Frances Abbott, daughter of former

Australian Prime Minister The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princi ...

Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott was born in Londo ...

References