Nancy Cook: Indoor rowing is her sport

From around the world, from 88 nations, competitors in the 2025 World Rowing Indoor Championships, presented by Concept2, took part for a huge number of reasons and motivations. From the United States, Nancy Cook is proud to call it her sport.

The World Rowing Indoor Championships, presented by Concept2, is embedded into Cook’s Indoor Rowing season schedule. The season generally fits in with the on-water off-season, so goes from around September to March.

Sixty-year-old Cook had the added motivation in entering to defend her title from last year. She entered the 2k and 500m. Preparation for these championships included a sprint training camp done online through a Florida indoor rowing gym, Live2Row, designed specifically for the indoor rowing season. This enabled Cook to know the pace she can set during the race.

An avid participant in the online Indoor Rowing community, Cook teamed up for her qualifying race virtually, with a fellow indoor rower in Canada. The two of them did a Zoom call together for their race. For the championships, Cook set herself up in her basement gym in preparation for racing virtually, updating her software and making sure all of her connections were working.

“I set up my US flag behind me. I had the connection set up with my computer and rowing machine. I had my big screen TV set up so I could see the race and feel like I was actually there.” This was for the 500m which Cook raced mid-morning and finished in silver medal position.

The next weekend Cook did her 2k in the guest room while at her holiday house. “I set up my flag, I had a big screen, the tripod with camera, I had all of the technology.” Cook went 7:29.7, tying her own world record. The following day she raced again going 7:31.

Cook describes herself as having one speed, “I’m a steady Eddie kind of person”, and she enacts a similar race plan for all of her races. For her 2k race Cook says, as always, she went out too hard. “I start with five hard strokes and then aim to tap it along at my 2k pace and stay there.” When her splits creep up, Cook tries to bring them back down ands stay in a constant rhythm. Then, if possible, she picks it up in the last quarter. “When I’m finished I feel good. I’m not throwing up.” She then does a cool-down.

Cook says a key to doing well is her warm-up. This adds up to around 5000m and includes steady state with some power moves at her 2k pace. After the event Cook went back and watched all of the races online. “It was cool to see all of the different venues and watch the overall winner (Ward Lemmelijn of Belgium) with all of the people behind him supporting him.”

Cook is a seasoned athlete. She’s a regular skier and has competed in marathon running and triathlons. She bought herself an indoor rower as a birthday present about ten years ago. Cook admits it initially collected dust but during the Covid Pandemic, Cook started using it regularly in her basement gym.

Cook’s competitive spirit soon sprung into action when she got involved with the online indoor rowing community and realised how good she was. “This is my sport. I did my first championships virtually, then I went to Toronto and then to Prague, and now this one,” says Cook. “I love setting goals and this is a huge goal of mine now. This is a small, niche sport, people don’t realise that you can compete at. I think I can be a voice for the sport that I’m a champion of and I’m proud of it.”

Cook is also on an indoor rowing ‘streak’. A streak is erging every day for as long as possible. She’s now over 1000 days with no plan to break the streak.

Next up Cook wants to beat the American 2k record. She’s tried twice and will try again. There’s also the Only Fools do 2ks competition as part of the Fools Fest Sprints and there are always world records to break.