Cath Bishop reflects on how times have changed at Cambridge University Women's Boat Club

Olympic silver medalist assesses club after putting youngsters through their paces with Beko's Eat Like A Pro campaign

Cath Bishop was back as the focus of attention when youngsters visited the Goldie Boathouse as part of the Beko’s Eat Like A Pro campaign.

It is a role that the 46-year-old has become accustomed to after two decades in the spotlight, with the pinnacle being Olympic silver with Dame Katherine Grainger in Athens in 2004.

On this particular morning though, Bishop was passing on her words of wisdom and experience to the pupils from Sancton Wood Prep School.

That accumulated knowledge has most recently been of vital use to Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club where, as chair of the executive committee, Bishop played an integral role in helping the move of the Women’s Boat Race to the Tideway and equality with the men.

“What happened with the women joining the Tideway and coming on to the same course on the same day as the men, and being part of that sponsorship deal and the BBC coverage, was part of a bigger move in women’s sport,” she said.

“We’ve seen it across football, rugby, cricket, with amazing stuff happening.

“People are interested in that now, people want to see that actually there are audiences, there are spectators, and it’s good quality sport to watch. The Boat Race has played its part in building that momentum.”

As the race and occasion have built up a head of steam, so to has the progress of CUWBC as a whole.

They have won the last two Boat Races, moved into the new boathouse at Ely and last week announced the appointment of Robert Weber as chief coach, a role that will be combined with the Cambridge University Lightweights Rowing Club.

“I think we’ve been building for years to get that strength of working together, get a system going and we’ve actually had really good quality coaching with Rob Baker as chief coach of the women, and now he’s working with the men’s club,” said Bishop.

“We’ve got that ongoing sense of a system that works for everybody. It’s not about personalities, it’s not about one particular person, it’s about having a holistic approach for the students.

“We want them to row well, but we also want them to be healthy, mentally healthy and have a really positive experience.

“They are going to be hugely stretched when they come and have this Boat Race experience but we also want them to learn a lot and take a lot with them into whatever they go on to do.

“Some might go on to the Olympics, but some go on to be leaders in all sorts of different careers and what they take from here is their biggest learning.”

With the women, men, openweights and lightweights all boating out of the same facility in Ely, it is a far cry from Bishop’s days at Cambridge.

It was not achieved overnight – with 10 years of fundraising – and was about taking sport into the modern era in order to make sure the Boat Race stays relevant.

While training hard remains the same from Bishop’s time at Cambridge, so much else within sport has moved on, such as technical ideas, sports science, professionalism, psychology and nutrition.

And the path to equality has also opened up more opportunities.

“We’re always trying to become more inclusive, as the university is,” said Bishop. “We want to be open to a wide range of students who come to the university as undergraduates or postgraduates.

“A lot of women come into Cambridge without rowing and progress to go on to the Olympics, which is what happened in my own case, so that development pathway is really important as well.

“We want a lot of different people to come in, and have partnerships like today. Twenty-five years ago, nobody came into Goldie, the doors were closed, whereas that’s changed a lot now.

“We want to work with people like Beko who have a message that we can reinforce. We want to have that outreach into the community for kids to be excited about rowing, to be future rowers wherever they go and have that access to being healthy and what it’s about.”

After a five-year tenure – a spell which has seen Melissa Wilson, Holly Hill and Imogen Grant follow Bishop’s path into the GB set-up – she handed over the reins as CUWBC chair to Siobhan Cassidy in May.

“It was a real privilege to have that opportunity to give back into what was a totally life-changing experience for me rowing for Cambridge,” she said.

“Also to be able to help support that move to the Tideway in 2015 was a hugely historic, emotional moment to see something that we talked about in the ’90s, that we never thought was really going to happen. I was really proud to be part of that.

“You have a certain amount of energy and I thought I had poured a lot in, and it was time for some fresh ideas.”

And you can sense that CUWBC is well set for a bright future.