Olympic champion banned from Boat Race in ongoing row over eligibility rules

Ford, along with three other postgraduate students, has been blocked from competing

Tom Ford (left) won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics but has been ruled ineligible to compete in the Boat Race this year (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Olympic champion Tom Ford has been banned from taking part in this year’s Boat Race amid an ongoing debate over eligibilty rules.

Ford, who won gold for Great Britain in the men’s eight at Paris 2024, has started a Masters of Business Administration course at Cambridge and was part of the ‘preparation’ races for the Boat Race.

The 32-year-old stroked the ‘provisional Blue Boat’ (Cambridge’s Boat Race crew) to victory against Olympic silver medallists the Netherlands in two races ahead of next month’s event.

It has since been revealed that Ford will not be able to compete after a crackdown on elite-level ‘ringers’ entering the Boat Race in the wake of double-Olympic champion James Cracknell competing, and winning, the race in 2019 – 13 years after his competitive retirement.

Following Cracknell’s appearance in the race, the rules were changed in 2021 to prevent anyone competing more than 12 years after beginning an undergraduate degree course.

The Boat Race Company, who enact the rules, said in a statement: “In the case of Tom Ford OLY, he matriculated in 2011 and is therefore ineligible to race according to the rules agreed jointly by the two clubs.

“As an Olympic gold medallist, Tom brings significant experience and learnings to the Cambridge squad. It is course unfortunate that he is not eligible to race according to the rules jointly agreed by the two clubs, but this was known to both Tom and CUBC at the time of his admission to the university last summer.”

Tom Ford won gold in the men's eight at Paris 2024 (Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

This is only the latest part of the saga after three post-graduate teacher training students, also rowing for Cambridge, were deemed ineligible less than a month before the two universities compete.

The three rowers ruled out are Matt Heywood, who won an Under-23 men’s eight world title in 2022, as well as 2023 and 2024 women’s reservist Molly Foxell, and 2023 reservist and 2024 lightweight cox Kate Crowley.

The Cambridge women’s team’s respective 2025 and 2024 presidents, Lucy Havard and Jenna Armstrong, also face potential bans due to when they started their undergraduate degrees. Havard began a medical degree at University College London in 2007 while Armstrong was an undergraduate in 2011 when she first started rowing.

The Boat Race Company, added: “Regarding the eligibility of PGCE students, this was raised earlier in the academic year. The eligibility rules agreed between the clubs also include a 12-year limit after a student first enrolled at a university. The rules are on the club websites and students will have been advised that these rules are in place.

“As the event, we simultaneously have sympathy for the personal situations of the student athletes concerned whilst wanting to ensure that rules agreed between the Clubs are followed and decisions accepted.”