Heartbreak for Hicks: Masters called in for Eights final

Illness has forced a late change to the Australian Men’s Eight crew that will contest the Olympic Games A Final later today.

Josh Hicks, 33, has been withdrawn medically from the crew with gastroenteritis. 

He will be replaced by Tim Masters from the Australian Men’s Four who also raced in the bronze medal winning eight at the 2023 World Championships.

While extremely disappointed by his late withdrawal from the 2024 Olympic eight, it is a measure of Josh’s character that his thoughts were for the crew, and belief in their ability.

“Throughout the past three years, the past iterations of this eight, there’s been an understanding in the group – a group of probably two dozen people who have been in and out of the Eight at any given time - that there will be athletes who win medals, but also a lot of people who are standing behind them; and some of those people are athletes,” Josh said.

Read more here: AOC Rowing News