Sam Hardy (rower)


Sam Hardy is an Australian representative rower. He is an U23 and senior national representative who won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.

Club and state rowing

Hardy was educated at Newington College in Sydney where he took up rowing. He was seated at six in Newington's senior eight of 2013. He then attended Harvard University and rowed in the Harvard varsity eight. His senior rowing in Australia has been from the Sydney Rowing Club.
Hardy achieved a rare feat in 2019 of being selected to senior national representative honours without having first represented at state level.
In 2019 he contested the open men's coxless pair title at the Australian Rowing Championships with Josh Hicks and finished in third place. He also contested the open men's coxless four championship and finished second.

International representative rowing

Hardy made his Australian representative debut at the 2015 U23 World Rowing Championships racing in Australia's coxed four to a fifth placing. The following year at the 2016 U23 World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam he was again in the Australian coxed four and they rowed to a bronze medal. In 2017 he had hjis third consecutive year in the three seat of the Australian coxed four at the U23 World Championships. They finished in fifth place.
In 2019 Hardy broke into the Australian senior sweep squad for the international representative season. At the World Rowing Cup III in Rotterdam Hardy rowed with Josh Hicks in the number two Australian pair finishing in 7th place whilst Alex Hill and Spencer Turrin took gold in the number one Australian men's coxless pair. Hicks and Hardy were then selected to race Australia's coxless pair at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria. The pair were looking for a top eleven finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. They were second in their heat, won their quarter-final and placed second in their semi-final, thereby qualifying the boat for Tokyo 2020. In the A-final they finished in third place behind the dominant Sinković brothers and took the bronze medal.