Flying Swans take off! 'NOW OUR KIDS CHEER US ON'

These oarsome mums share how a shaky start led to a silver medal

- Ruth Jillings

For three years, Simone Archer was up well before dawn to take her son Matthew to rowing. She would sit in the car and snooze or do some work online. Weekends were spent volunteering at. regattas, never imagining in a few short years she would be on the water herself, mastering a notoriously difficult sport with a group of like-minded women.

Fast-forward and Simone is now part of a group of females who beat the odds to become accomplished Masters Rowers. In November 2022, her team, the Flying Swans, travelled to Melbourne and won silver behind a group of hand-picked elite Australians in the 3.5km Melbourne Head Regatta.

The average age of the women is 54, and is made up of mums, career women, business owners and a grandmother-of-nine.

"There is nothing like having a group of supportive friends who love hanging out and learning together," says Simone, 58. "It has been so empowering to lift other people up and feel that support back from others too. You don't always get that in other areas of your life."

Getting a crew together was the wild dream of the only experienced rower, Fiona Trevelyan, who convinced a group of mums she had met while volunteering at their children’s regattas to try the sport for themselves. After a Learn to Row course at the North Shore Rowing Club, the Flying Swans were on their way.

“It was an ambitious idea – a group of middle-aged women taking on this dream really was a leap of faith,” says Fiona, 57.

But the risk has paid off , with the team agreeing the experience has been life-changing.