O'Connor ready to ride crest of wave so that British crew all pull together

Cox settles into the hot seat as women's eight try to live up to the Olympic legacy left by Redgrave and Pinsent.

It was Victoria Pendleton who declared recently how remarkable it is what the British can achieve in sport by sitting on their backsides. She was talking, of course, about the phenomenal successes she and her fellow cyclists had obtained, but an examination of the outstanding results from recent Olympics suggests that the prolific pedal-pushers are not alone in taking their gold medal victories sitting down.

There is sailing, where Britain consistently rules the Olympic waves, and rowing, where thanks to the enduring supremacy and legacy of the knights of the water, Sirs Steve Redgrave (pictured right) and Matthew Pinsent, the GB squad have gone from strength to strength. Last September, they topped the medals table at the World Championships in Munich with 11, seven in Olympic classes.

Britain's top crews train daily at the Redgrave and Pinsent Rowing Lake in Caversham, near Reading, the name being an indication of the influence the pair have had on the sport. Redgrave won five Olympic gold medals from 1984 to 2000, three of them with Pinsent, who gained his fourth in Athens four years ago. Many of Britain's present rowers who form the basis for this year's assault on Beijing took up the sport after being inspired by the duo, who moved rowing into the mainstream as an Olympic event.

The women are making quite a splash, too. They won their first Olympic medal in Sydney eight years ago when the quadruple scull took silver with acrew including the redoubtable Rebecca Romero, who has swapped seats to join Pendleton in the saddle. Britain have also won quad gold in the past three World Championships.

There are also high hopes for the women's eight after they won silver at the World Cup in Linz last year and then came third in the World Championships. Taking a back seat, quite literally, is the dimin-utive cox CarolineO'Connor, whose motivational role has been instrumental in getting them to pull together so harmoniously.

Normally, coxes do not get much of a shout when the plaudits are handed out – though they do most of the shouting. But O'Connor reckons the back seat is actually the hot seat. You not only have to have the shout, but you have the clout. "I would consider myself an on-board coach," she says. "I am there to support our coach, John Keogh. I'm not just telling them what I think is not right, but how to fix it. The more experience you get, you develop a feel for the boat. You get to see the blades from a different angle to the coach, see how the rowers are moving together."

Yet until the girl from Ealing, west London, went to Oxford Brookes Univers-ity as an 18-year-old, she had never been in a boat before. "I'd played quite a lot of sport at school, tennis, hockey and badminton, but the university was big on rowing. Because I'm quite small, someone asked if I fancied coxing. So I thought I'd give it a go. Within two weeks I was coxing a novice men's eight.

"I progressed to the senior team, and at the end of my first year went to the home countries regatta in Scotland and coxed the men's eight. At the World Student Games in 2004 I coxed the men's eight and we came fifth. A year later I started training for the GB women's squad." (Women cannot cox men's crews in the Olympics).

At 5ft 2in, with eyes of blue, blonde and bubbly, she is an energising acquisition to the British camp, where there is great admiration for her dedication. "I am one of those people who, once they get the bit between their teeth, want to get better and better," she says.

From the river bank, the lay spectator might surmise that all a cox does is shout and steer. Not so. "The relationship you have with your crew is vital. You must get the right balance and develop as a team. Yes, as a cox I am there making calls and giving commands and they have to respond, but we all know the only reason we are doing it is because we want to be successful in Beijing.

"Maybe some coxes want a bit of power. Some can be a bit bossy. You have to be in control of the boat, but the athletes know that if I say someone must get their blade in faster it's because we want the boat to go faster, and that's the only way it will ever work. They all know I am just as passionate about winning as they are.

"As a cox you have to be not so much physically strong but mentally hard. Sometimes things are said that can hurt. The cox often gets a lot of the blame if things go wrong, though sometimes we do need to be told. I certainly would not like it if I went the whole year and people only said, 'Well done, Caroline'."

The eight have qualified for Beijing, although the final crew – and their cox – have yet to be confirmed. While O'Connor is in the driving seat, she says: "No one's place is assured." However, she says she thinks about the potential opposition in Beijing every day, "notably the Americans and Romanians, who are the ones to beat".

The entire British squad face three World Cup regattas – in Munich this weekend, then Lucerne and Poznan – before the Olympic regatta starts at the Shunyi course on 9 August.

"We don't really start the eights until March or April, but I am part of the team the whole year. Even when we're not in the water I'll be on my bike or in a launch coaching. If I just turned up in April and said, 'Hello, I'm here', it wouldn't work.

"I believe we have a fantastic structure here at Caversham. There's a 2km rowing course and in practice we get to race the heavyweight men and the women's quad, who are world champions."

Britain's most illustrious cox was Colin Moynihan, the one-time sports minister who now chairs the British Olympic Association. He won silver with the men's eight in Moscow in 1980. O'Connor's mentor is Rowley Douglas, who was cox to the only GB men's eight to win Olympic gold, eight years ago at Sydney.

"He [Douglas] has my total respect and admiration," says O'Connor. "We went to the same university and he knows my coxing history. We have similar ideals. He's the kind of person that when you meet him you want to go out coxing right away. He's that inspirational."

O'Connor, whose boyfriend, Peter Randolph, rows for Leander and is an Under-23 international, has moved to Henley and says she has taken up cooking – fairy cakes a speciality. She can even indulge in them herself, as she is a natural flyweight and does not have to diet to make the 50kg (7st 10lb) limit.

At 25, she is keen to still be in with a shout for London in 2012. Then, as a graduate in human biology, she expects to return to her job as a teacher. "As long as you've still got your wits about you, you can go on coxing for quite a long time. It is all about experience." And keeping on the straight and narrow without making waves.

Message from an icon: Rowley Douglas

'She is a bit like I was, a dog with a bone, very aggressive'

I am very flattered that Caroline and her male counterpart Acer Nethercott in the men's eights have come to me and asked advice as someone who's been there and done it, if you like – in fact the only cox in an eight to have won gold at the Olympics.

Sometimes there is an agenda, sometimes particular questions about what there is to encounter at an Olympics. They want to draw out what they can make use of. Caroline is very good at being driven to find out what she can, to extract knowledge from every possible place. She is a bit like I was, a dog with a bone, very aggressive, wanting to do whatever it took within the bounds of what was moral and legal to achieve it.

The people in the boat have got to trust the cox, who in some cases is going to be the difference between winningand losing, especially if you are behind. They need someone who is not selling them down the river and telling them you will do this, or you will do that.

Personality plays a huge part and Caroline has that in abundance. The enthusiasm, tone and passion transmits down the boat through those speakers. The crew have to feed off that. She's very excitable, and sometimes I have to calm her down. There's still a lot of rowing to be done before Beijing and both eights coxes have to learn as much as they can from every encounter, get as much information as they can about themselves and their competitors. We learned an awful lot in the races leading up to Sydney. If all goes well at these Olympics, for her to take that experience on to London would be brilliant. Age is not a factor, just as long as she can keep her drive and enthusiasm.

Rowley Douglas, 31, wasthe winning cox in the men's eight at Sydney 2000, and a World Championship silver medallist. He now worksin commercial finance

The British Olympic Association (BOA), formed in 1905, are the national Olympic committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They prepare and lead the nation's finest athletes at summer, winter and youth Olympic Games, and deliver elite-level support services to Britain's Olympic athletes and their national governing bodies. For further information: olympics.org.uk