The 2024 British Rowing Indoor Championships – A Story of Survival, Strength, and Redemption
- Brainz Magazine
- May 27
- 5 min read
Written by Ollie Osborne, Founder
Ollie Osborne is a former Royal Marine and founder of Warrior Wellness Movement, delivering holistic health, wellness, and performance coaching. Backed by expert therapists, he helps veterans and professionals overcome adversity, rebuild resilience, and thrive through his Warrior Evolution Programme.
Where do you start when the story is bigger than the race? This wasn’t about rowing 2,000 meters. It wasn’t about finishing 5th. Or pulling a 6.19 aged 44 on 12 weeks of training. It wasn’t even about the numbers on the monitor. This was about fighting back. About clawing my way out of a hole so deep, there were times I wasn’t sure I’d ever see daylight again.
This was about proving that no matter how far you fall, no matter how broken you feel, there’s always a way back.
“Why do we fall, Bruce?” “So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
The fall
From 2011 to 2015, I lived for indoor rowing. It wasn’t just a sport, it was my identity, my escape, my purpose. Late to the game at 30, I poured everything into it. I wasn’t the biggest or the strongest, but I had something else: grit. A relentless drive to squeeze every ounce of performance out of myself, no matter the cost.
And there was a cost.
By 2015, I had the medals, the records, the titles, but I also had a broken body. Years of battering from Royal Marines Commando training, a car accident that left permanent scars, and an addiction to pushing myself to the brink finally caught up with me. My body failed, and with it, so did everything else.
When the rowing stopped, my life unravelled. I went from hero to zero in what felt like an instant. A two-year stint in military rehabilitation ended my service career. My professional coaching role in football dissolved, chewed up and spat out by the brutal, loyalty-free world of management changes. Then came financial ruin, divorce, a custody battle, and the crushing loss of my father.
Every time I thought I’d hit bottom, the ground gave way beneath me and I fell further.
It’s hard to explain what it feels like to lose everything that defines you. To look in the mirror and see a stranger staring back. To carry scars physical, emotional, and psychological that no one else can see.
I wasn’t just down. I was out. Or so I thought.
The turn
When you’re at rock bottom, it’s easy to think no one can pull you out. But sometimes, when you least expect it, someone reaches into the darkness and offers you a hand.
For me, that person was my now partner. She walked into my life when I was at my lowest, fragile, broken, and far from the man I used to be. Somehow, she saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself.
And then came Mark Jones at ThreeSixty Rehab. The man who didn’t just treat me, he rebuilt me. Mark didn’t just look at my injuries; he looked at me. He saw the years of trauma, the layers of damage, and he worked with a precision and understanding I’d never experienced before. Over two years, he didn’t just fix my body; he gave me hope. “Everyone is fixable.”
Slowly, the pieces started to come back together. I founded Warrior Wellness Movement, driven by a burning desire to help others rise from their own ashes. I preached resilience, strength, and the idea that no one is too far gone to come back.
But even then, something was missing.
The hunger
It started as a whisper. A tiny voice in the back of my mind.
Could I do it again? Could I come back not just to rowing, but to the battle within myself?
At first, I dismissed it. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. A year ago, I watched from the sidelines, commentating at the 2023 British Championships, and asked myself: What if?
By the time I walked into Mark’s clinic and said, “I’m making a comeback,” the decision had already been made. It had been nearly 10 years.
This time, it wasn’t about medals or podiums. It wasn’t about proving anything to anyone else. It was about proving to myself that I wasn’t done. That I wasn’t defined by my failures or my scars. That I could still fight.
The comeback
Training wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to row endless metres, so I planned a 12-week assault. It was brutal, but it was focused. Two weeks before the race, I sat alone in my gym room and pulled a 6:19.
Twelve seconds slower than my lifetime best. But ten years older. Ten years wiser. And carrying the weight of everything I’d been through.
In that moment, I felt like I’d won.
By the time I arrived in Birmingham, the race itself felt almost irrelevant. The real battle had already been fought in the years of darkness, in the gruelling training sessions, in the decision to sit on that machine and say, “I’m not done.”
On race day, I gave everything I had. I finished 5th, but it wasn’t about the placing. It was about the man who sat on that start line, the man who had been to hell and back and found a way to keep going.
The message
To those of you who feel broken, who think it’s too late, who believe the best version of yourself is behind you, I’m here to tell you it’s not.
You’re not out. You’re never out.
This isn’t just a story about rowing. It’s a story about life, about resilience, about refusing to let adversity define you. It’s about finding strength when you think you have none left.
Many of my clients, who joined me in racing this weekend, are already planning for 2025. They’ve caught the fire.
Will I be there too? Who knows? But one thing is certain: I’m not done.
Neither are you.
“The body achieves what the mind believes.“
Read more from Ollie Osborne
Ollie Osborne, Founder
Ollie Osborne is a former Royal Marine, elite indoor rower, and founder of Warrior Wellness Movement. After overcoming severe physical injuries, mental health struggles, and two years in full-time rehabilitation that ended his military career, Ollie now specialises in holistic health, wellness, and performance coaching. Supported by specialist coaches in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Nutritional Therapy, his unique Warrior Evolution Programme integrates physical training, mental resilience, nutrition, and community support, enabling military veterans and high-achieving professionals to reclaim optimal health and resilience. He also hosts the Beyond the Battlefield podcast on YouTube.
