Steve Fairbairn

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Steve Fairbairn (born 25 August 1862 in Melbourne, Australia, died 16 May 1938) was a rower and an influential and notoriously tough rowing coach, notably at Jesus College, Cambridge, Thames Rowing Club and London Rowing Club in the early decades of the 20th century.

Fairbairn was the first to train his crews to slide in their seats to maximise the length of their stroke, with great success. "The Fairbairn Cup Races", a rowing head race held annually on the River Cam on the first Thursday and Friday after the end of the University of Cambridge's Michaelmas Full Term (typically early in December), is named after him. He rowed for Cambridge University in 1882, 1883, 1885 and 1886.

He founded the Head of the River Race in 1926 – a head race for men's eights held every year on the River Thames in London.

A memorial to Fairbairn is situated on the southern bank of the Thames between Putney and Hammersmith. This memorial, a stone obelisk popularly known as the Mile Post, is exactly one mile from the Putney end of the Championship Course used in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race and other races. In the Boat Race and Wingfield Sculls, the Mile Post is a formal intermediate timing point.

[edit] Bibliography

• Rowing Notes, 1926.
• Slowly Forward, 1929.
• Some Secrets of Successful Rowing, 1931.
• Fairbairn of Jesus (autobiography), 1931.
• Chats on Rowing, 1934.