"A mind of steel and the heart of a lion" - Shelley Cornish's indoor rowing journey

World Rowing recently interviewed Australia’s multiple world indoor rowing champion Shelley Cornish about her rowing career.

Since starting her indoor rowing journey in 2017, Shelley Cornish has been dominant. Her most recent achievements include winning both the 500m and 2000m in the 65 – 69 Lightweight Women 65-69 categories at the 2022 World Rowing Indoor Championships. This was despite racing late at night due to the time difference, as well as tearing a glute muscle five weeks before the competition, forcing her to suspend training for a fortnight. Cornish felt relieved to have competed at all, “I was so grateful to be able to recover enough to compete”. Cornish is still on the mend, having had foot surgery two days after becoming the 2022 World Champion.

Cornish started her rowing journey in 2017 when she supported a friend who was racing at the Pan Pacific Games in Australia, where Cornish quickly became inspired. Cornish’s core fitness from competing in dragon boat racing transferred onto the erg, and after signing up to train at a local gym, she won the Pan Pacific Games herself within a year.

She confirmed her dedication for indoor rowing by buying an “old but good” Concept 2 rowing machine to continue her training at home. Cornish enjoys the flexibility of an indoor rower, saying “I love getting a crazy all body workout right at home when it suits me and listening to my favourite music.”

Since then, Cornish has competed in over ten major indoor competitions. “Fortunately, I’ve won every race I’ve entered.” she says, beaming.

Cornish’s rowing success did not come by accident, but through sheer hard work, passion, and a positive attitude towards rowing, including through months of disciplined training in cardio and strength building each season. Training in the hot weather of Australia also comes with its unique challenges, although Cornish is undeterred. She says, “good training is a mindset and a desire to achieve your goals. In hot weather, we work out early or late in the day to avoid the heat.”

Cornish credits having a close training partner in her husband, Paul Hurley, to help stay motivated and organised, as “it can be quite a solo sport”, adding, “we tag team on the rower. It is so supportive to have someone to unpack and analyse the whole rowing journey with. We discuss technique and training successes, he supports on the business side of rowing and encouraged me to go into rowing internationally in the first place. I told him I would row if he would, and we feed off each other; it’s gold.”

Hurley, an accomplished indoor rowing in his own right, as a 2021 World Indoor Rowing silver medalist, and current Lightweight Men’s 55-59 500m Australian national champion, describes Cornish as “a mind of steel and the heart of a lion.”

Unsurprisingly, as the reigning World Champion in the 500m and 2000m, they are both Cornish’s favourite rowing distances. She says, “I like the tactics and different planning they need. And they all scare me at race time because I know how hard it will be.”

That fear, is in part driven by her keen competitive spirit. She says, “If I’m feeling lazy, I wonder about how my competitors may be training and it puts the fear into me.”

That competitive drive was most clearly exemplified during the 2021 World Indoor Rowing Championships, where Cornish won the 2000m lightweight women masters 60 – 64 against defending champion Carol Woodward, and shaved 14 seconds off her personal best in the process. Cornish describes that race as her proudest moment, “I won literally in the last pull of the race. This was the hardest race of my life, and I made up 6m on her in the last 150m after she had kept that gap between us for over 1000m. Carol was the reigning world champion at the time and a legend in her own right. I was so shocked and astounded at my own effort.”

The warm rowing community keeps her interest strong, “I am inspired by people I see at rowing events. We are all there because we love rowing, health and fitness. We are all comfortable with the pain that comes with hard work. We all have that in common and athletes respect that in each other.”

Cornish struck an optimistic tone on the future of indoor rowing, “the World Indoor Rowing Championships going virtual is the beginning of big growth.” She encourages all of us to “introduce a friend”, and to continue to promote stories of all types of rowers, not just the winners.

Cornish plans to stay fit for a long time to come, “I want to grow older with health and fitness” and her next goal is to win the Australian Championships and Pan Pacific Games later in 2022. Given her intense focus and passion, she will be a tough competitor to beat!