Nick Hunter OAM
ANU Boat Club (ACT)
The following citation appears on the Rowing ACT website Life Members page and was extracted on 30th December 2022.
Few have made as much of a contribution to rowing in the ACT as Nick Hunter has since his arrival in 1980.
Beginning as a rower and committee member with the Australian National University Boat Club, Nick became
captain in 1984. He then worked his way through the ranks as a rower, representing Australia at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, as well as the 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1990 World Championships.
Nick began his coaching career in 1988, going on to become Head Coach of the ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS) rowing program from 1994-2000, continuing in a coaching role until 2003. During that time seven ACTAS athletes were selected for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and five for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Between 1989 and 2000 Nick also ran talent identification programs in the ACT, with 14 representing Australia and three becoming Olympians. Nick was an Australian team coach between 1990 and 2002, including for the 1990 World Championships, the 1999 and 2000 World Junior Championships, the 2001 and 2002 World Junior Championships, and as Assistant Team Coach for the London 2012 Paralympics. Nick continues to coach to this day, ranging from novice to elite level within the ANU Boat Club.
Nick first became a Rowing ACT Board member in 1986, serving again from 1990-1994 and from 2003-2020. In
1993 Nick was part of a three-person subcommittee that negotiated to separate Rowing ACT from Rowing NSW, which finished with Rowing Australia recognising Rowing ACT as a separate state association in 1995. Between 1996 and 1997 Nick lobbied the ACT Minister for Urban Services to have a government lakeside works depot and office transferred to ACTAS as their Rowing Centre; this happened in 1997. Nick was also involved in gaining a $60,000 refurbishment of the ANU boathouse through ANU Sport, as well as writing the business case and gaining approvals for the $2.2 million expansion of the Rowing Australia & AIS Rowing Centre in Yarralumla in his professional capacity with the AIS.
Nick has also been a boat race official for a number of years. In 2013 Nick became a member of Rowing
Australia’s Umpire’s Committee, before being appointed to FISA’s World Rowing Umpiring Commission in 2014. Nick was the first Australian to be appointed to this committee and continues to run education programs for rowing officials in the Asia and Oceania. Nick has served on juries for World Rowing events each year from 2013 to 2021, and continues to serve as a Boat Race Official in the ACT during most local regattas and winter time trials.