Charlotte's Story
Following in her grandfather and older sister’s footsteps, Charlotte Sutherland took up rowing in high school and made her debut Olympic Games in Rio. The crew had only two weeks to prepare for their Olympic campaign, after the Russian boat was banned from competing at the Games.
In their first heat, the Aussies flew out of the start in a bid to chase down favourite USA, as well as Netherlands and Romania. The crew of Fiona Albert, Jessica Morrison, Alexandra Hagan, Meaghan Volker, Molly Goodman, Olympia Aldersey, Lucy Stephan, Charlotte Sutherland and coxswain Sarah Banting made a competitive start however with limited race preparation managed a fourth place finish. The boat required a top four finish in the repechage to qualify for the A-final. As they approached the final 500 metres, the top four crews pulled ahead and the Australians were left to finish fifth in what was a valiant effort for a crew that had only been training together for 10 days.
At her first senior international competition, she took gold as part of the women’s eight at the 2013 World Cup I in Sydney. The same year at World Cup III she won silver in the women’s four, and took gold in the women’s four at the U23 World Championships in Linz, Austria. She also contested the 2013 World Championships in Korea, taking fifth place with the women’s eight.
Sutherland was a part of the crew that just missed out on Rio qualification after they finished third at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta
From Tooma in country NSW, Sutherland is studying Agriculture at the University of Melbourne, and works casually at a grain trading company.
