Winners of the Olympic gold medal in the coxed four at the 1984 Olympic Games: (left to right) Martin Cross, Richard Budgett, Andy Holmes, Steve Redgrave and Adrian Ellison. Photo: @TeamGB

3 August 2021

By Göran R Buckhorn

Göran Buckhorn listens to how "Crossy" gets cornered.

You might not have seen him, but you have for sure heard him – Martin "Crossy" Cross, Olympic champion (coxed four, 1984), who after a successful rowing career became a commentator at international rowing regattas. You probably heard him report on the Olympic rowing on the Sea Forest Waterway, which just ended the other day.

Cross has also for a quite some time interviewed rowers, coxes and coaches, first on his own channel, "Crossy's Corner", which is now broadcast by Ludum, a training management and performance analysis tool for teams. On 24 January this year, he got a real scoop when he interviewed GB Team former head coach Jurgen Grobler, who had left his coaching position in August 2020 (read Chris Dodd's "review" of their chat here).

However, yesterday, Martin Cross found himself on the other side of the microphone, when he was interviewed by Adrian Cassidy, CEO of Ludum. During the slightly one hour long interview – and it was truly brilliant – everything was discussed from Cross's long rowing career, the Olympic Games he participated in, his book Olympic Obsession and his thoughts about the sport of rowing's future.

Watch and listen to the interview here:

Below are some "short-cuts" of the interview:

0:00 Introductions
1:30 Longevity
3:45 Most Memorable Races
12:00 World Championships
15:00 The Pimenovs
17:55 Relationships in Rowing
23:50 Moscow 4- 1980
27:40 Los Angeles 4+ 1984
36:30 Jim Clark & Searle Brothers
39:30 Writing Olympic Obsession
43:00 The Transition
49:00 Broadcasting & Rowing Now
58:00 Rowing in the Future