The Launch
“The Boat Race is older than New Zealand as a country” – a Kiwi in Oxford
Tom Mackintosh, the Oxford University Boat Club President for 2025, is a rarity. A President who has never rowed a Boat Race; a man who took Olympic gold in the eight, then moved into the single and won World Championship bronze in the slowest and loneliest of boats. Not many people have sat on an Olympic start line in the biggest and smallest boats. Tom was Olympic champion in the New Zealand eight in Tokyo 2020, before taking some time away from rowing. He returned in the single scull, won World Championship bronze in 2023, and finished fifth in Paris 2024. This unique blend of experiences, Tom believes, sets him up well to lead the athletes at Oxford.
Presidents’ Challenge Launches 2025 Boat Race Season
The 2025 Boat Race season is officially underway following the annual Presidents’ Challenge, held this year at London’s iconic Somerset House. Marking the renewal of the legendary rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge, the event featured the formal challenge ceremony and introduced a season of exciting milestones, including CHANEL’s debut as the new title sponsor. With an increasingly diverse roster of athletes, including Olympians and rowers from 18 nationalities, the stage is set for the 79th Women’s and 170th Men’s Boat Races on April 13, 2025.
Treasure from the Thames: The Boat Race Medallion Discovery
Many people who are fans of The Boat Race may have no connection with either university or to the sport of rowing but follow the beloved 200-year-old British national institution because of a passion for the River Thames and also for history and heritage. In such cases, it is also possible that they also follow the many social media and YouTube sites dedicated to ‘mudlarking’, the searching of the Thames foreshore at low tide for items lost or discarded anytime within the last 1,000 plus years – from Roman coins to Victorian clay tobacco pipes to McDonald’s plastic toys.
