Meaghan Volker (born 20 October 1990) is an Australian

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

. She competed in the

women's eight An eight, abbreviated as an 8+, is a racing shell used in competitive rowing (crew). It is designed for eight rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or "cox". Each of the eight rowers has one oar. The rowers ...

event at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Club and state rowing

Volker participated in

Little Athletics Little Athletics is an Australian activity program that involves modified athletics events for children aged 3 to 16 in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory); 3 ...

and was a Tasmanian state champion in high-jump before she was a teenager. She was educated at the Friends' School, Hobart where her father Peter was a rowing coach and she took up the sport at age fourteen. Her senior club rowing was from the Buckingham Rowing Club in Tasmania from where she was identified in a Tasmanian Institute of Sport's talent identification program.Volker Profile
/ref> In 2012 received an invitation to travel to US and to join the rowing program at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. She was twice named an All American rower, 2nd Class in 2013 and 1st Class in 2014. Volker returned to Australia in 2015 and was selected in the Tasmanian state and the national women's eights. She received a scholarship to the AIS and studied in Civil Engineering. Volker was selected to represent Tasmania in the 2015 senior women's eight contesting the Queen's Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

. In 2017 Volker combined with Sarah Hawe to win the inaugural Sarah Tait Memorial Trophy for the national women's pair championship.

International representative rowing

Volker made her Australian representative debut in the 2015 representative season.Volker at World Rowing
/ref> She rowed in the senior women's eight at two World Rowing Cups in Europe and also competed in a

coxless four A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain. The crew consists of four ...

at the WRC II. Then Volker rowed in the five seat of the eight at the

2015 World Rowing Championships The 2015 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 2015 at the Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette-le-Lac in France. Description The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by ...

in Aiguebelette. They finished in overall seventh place. Volker was a member of the Australian women's eight who initially missed qualification for the

2016 Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

but received a late call up following the Russian drug scandal. WADA had discovered Russian state sponsored drug testing violations and the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

acted to protect clean athletes and set strict entry guidelines for Russian athletes resulting in most of their rowers and nearly all of their crews being withdrawn from the Olympic regatta. The crew had dispersed two months earlier after their failure to qualify but reconvened, travelled at the last minute to Rio and borrowed a shell. They finished last in their heat, last in the repechage and were eliminated.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Volker, Meaghan 1990 births Living people Australian female rowers Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian sportswomen People educated at The Friends' School, Hobart