Thomas "Tom" Sullivan was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 amateur rowing and sculling champion who later turned professional and challenged for the World Championship title. He later became a rowing coach.

Rowing

Sullivan was born in Auckland on 18 September 1868. He won his first rowing race at age 13. He was a member of a widely known Wellington Rowing Club

Wellington Rowing Club

The Wellington Rowing Club is a rowing club situated on Wellington Harbour, New Zealand.-History:The Wellington Rowing Club was first established in October 1871 as a professional club...

 four-oared crew (W Bridson, EJ Rose, T Sullivan, and T McKay) that won all four championship titles under the auspices of the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association during 1889–90. He also won the amateur sculling championship of the country in 1890.

New Zealand Champion

Later he became a professional. The normal build-up races of a professional were raced with various others in Sydney. On 11 May 1891 Sullivan raced Charles Stephenson (rower)

Charles Stephenson (rower)

Charles Stephenson was a New Zealand rower. He was born in Hobson Street, Auckland. He passed most of his boyhood at the Thames, and after leaving school went to the Northern Wairoa district, where he took to a bushman's life. His work in the kauri bushes was varied by an occasional spell as a...

 for the usual professional stake of £100 a side; they also had a side-bet of £100. The race was a title challenge for the championship of New Zealand. Stephenson started strong and was well ahead at Uhr's Point. Sullivan gradually increased his speed and was four lengths ahead at the mile mark, eventually winning easily by six lengths in a time of 23 minutes 33 seconds. See also New Zealand Sculling Championship

New Zealand Sculling Championship

The Professional Single Sculls Championship of New Zealand - Record of Racing March 1881Albert White of Mercury Bay offered to scull any person in New Zealand for the professional Championship of the country. He wanted to row for either £100 or £200...

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Sullivan then challenged Jim Stanbury for the World Title which he had won in 1891. Sullivan was the first of the six New Zealanders who attempted to gain the World Title. On the 2 May 1892 the title race took place on the Parramatta River but on a shorter than normal course, and the stake was £400 a side. A large crowd was on hand to see the race. Stanbury took an early lead. After the halfway point, Stanbury steadily increased his lead and crossed the line three lengths ahead.

English Champion

Sullivan later headed to the United States and England and in 1893 he challenged George Bubear of Chelsea for the English Sculling Championship

English Sculling Championship

The English Sculling Championship developed out of informal competitions between working watermen on rivers such as the Thames and the Tyne. Various matches were made on a casual basis but in time these were more formalised. The first recognised Champion was Charles Campbell who beat John Williams...

. This race was held on the Championship Course on the Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

 in London. Sullivan won and later he was challenged for the title by Charles R Harding

Charles R Harding

Charles R. Harding was an English professional single sculler who became the Champion of England and was a contender for the World Sculling Championship. He was born in London circa 1866 and his occupation was that of a waterman...

 (aka "Wag" Harding) with that race taking place on the Tyne River in February 1895. Harding won and again beat Sullivan in a return match the following September. Harding also unsuccessfully challenged Stanbury for the World Title in 1896.

In the spring of 1901, Spencer Gollan

Spencer Gollan

Spencer Herbert Gollan was a sportsman who excelled in rowing and golf and was also a race horse owner.Gollan was born at Napier in New Zealand and became a racehorse owner in Australia and New Zealand. He was also a golfer who twice won the amateur Championship of New Zealand, and was a...

, along with two professional oarsmen, George Towns

George Towns (rower)

George Towns was the Australian Single Sculls World Champion from 1901 to 1905 and 1906 to 1907. He was the last of the seven Australian Champions who between them held the title almost uninterrupted from 1876 to 1907.-Early Sculling:...

 and Sullivan, broke the record for rowing between Oxford and Putney along the River Thames. The distance was 104 miles and they managed to cover the distance in 13 hours 55 minutes, beating the previous record (set in 1889) by eight and a half hours. The trio had a strong stream and all the locks were in their favour, and they did not carry a coxswain.

Sullivan attempted to win the Championship of America in August 1905 when he raced Edward Durnan of Canada in a 3 miles (4.8 km) race in Toronto. Sullivan was soundly beaten and Durnan went on to unsuccessfully challenge for the World Title.

Coaching

Tom Sullivan turned to coaching and became successful. He coached crews at the Berlin Rowing Club. He was interned for four years during the First World War and afterward spent some time coaching in the Netherlands. He returned to Berlin where he coached the German coxed four to a gold medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics

Rowing at the 1932 Summer Olympics

Rowing at the 1932 Summer Olympics featured 7 events, for men only. The competitions were held from August 9, 1932 to August 13, 1932 at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach, California.-Medal summary:-Participating nations:...

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When Coach Tom Sullivan left Berliner Ruder-Klub in October 1936 to move to Austria, Herbert Buhtz wrote a long celebratory article in the German rowing magazine, Wassersport:

“Although a German rowing club engages an Englishman [sic!] as trainer, this is in no way a matter of national feeling. The main point is what the teacher is capable of imparting and not what mother tongue he happens to have. […] Tom Sullivan was entirely worthy of the great confidence we had in him. Of the 490 victories won by Berliner Ruderklub Tom was responsible for 224 during the eleven years he supervised the training of the club. He was known as a master of the hard English school, of strict discipline and exact method of rowing. [- - -] His work and mature art convinced everyone. He was an Englishman with an international outlook and an honest admiration for the Germans, a fascinating personality whom young and old under his jurisdiction respected and whom oarsmen from all parts of Germany were attracted. [- - -]”
(From Hylton Cleaver: Sporting Rhapsody (1951), pp 48-49)
Tom Sullivan died in Vienna in 1949.