Yasmin Farooq

Yasmin Farooq (born November 25, 1965 in Golden Valley, Minnesota) is an American rowing cox and the head coach of the University of Washington women's rowing team. She graduated from Waupun High School in 1984 at Waupun, Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she started coxing in 1984; she then was voted Captain and MVP her senior year. She finished 6th in the women's eight at the 1992 Summer Olympics and 4th in the women's eight at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
In 2006, Farooq became the head coach of Stanford University's women's rowing team. In her second year at the helm, the Stanford varsity eight won a silver medal at the NCAA Championships, and she was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In 2009, she led the team to Stanford's first NCAA Team Title in rowing. The Stanford varsity eight set an NCAA record of 6:11.95 en route to victory in the grand final. The team title was solidified with a third-place finish by the second varsity eight and a fifth-place finish by the varsity four. Also in 2009, Farooq was named 2009 Coach of the Year by the Rowing News, and also earned "Joy of Sculling Coaches Conference Award for University Women's Coach of the Year" at the 17th Annual Joy of Sculling Conference. In 2011, Stanford finished in a tie with Brown University for first place in the NCAA team standings, but they lost the tie-breaker by .05 in the first varsity eight grand final.
In 2012, Farooq served as coach of the United States Under-23 women's eight which won a gold medal at the Under-23 World Championships in Trakai, Lithuania.
In 2014, Farooq led the Cardinal women to their first Pac-12 Conference Title. Stanford swept all three varsity events. The Cardinal went on to finish fourth at the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, IN. Farooq was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year. She was also inducted in the National Rowing Hall of Fame for her contributions to the US National Rowing Team as a coxswain.
In 2016, after leading the Cardinal to a 4th-place finish at the NCAA's, Farooq resigned to become head coach at the University of Washington. In her 10 years at Stanford, Farooq led her crews to five NCAA podium finishes. Under Farooq, 138 Cardinal rowers earned Academic All-Pac-12 honors and 74 were named CRCA Scholar-Athletes. 28 Stanford rowers during her tenure were named CRCA All-America.
In her first season at Washington, Farooq led the Huskies to the Pac-12 Championship and the 2017 NCAA Championship. Washington won all three grand finals, accomplishing that sweep for the first time in the 21-year history of the NCAA Regatta. The championship was the Huskies' fourth NCAA rowing title and their first since 2001. In winning the title, Farooq became both the first coach to win an NCAA rowing championship in her first season with the winning program and the first to win it as head coach of two different schools. The UW's rowing championship was also the 500th team championship to be won by a Pac-12 Conference program. At season's end, Farooq was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year and also the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) national coach of the year.
Stanford Olympians coached by Farooq include Elle Logan, an NCAA champion (2009), three-time world champion, three-time Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012 and 2016, all in the U.S. eight). Logan was named Pac-12 Women’s Rower of the Century in 2016. Farooq also coached 2016 Olympian Grace Luczak at Stanford. Luczak was also a member of Stanford's NCAA Championship team in 2009 and is a three-time World Champion (2013, 2014, 2015) as a member of the U.S. women's eight and four. Luczak competed in the U.S. women's pair that finished 4th at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Farooq has worked as rowing commentator for NBC's Olympic broadcasts in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012. She was also the rowing analyst for NBC's Universal Sports, covering World Cup regattas and the World Championships.
Farooq is married to Roger Waterman, a television cameraman and producer. In their spare time they produce instructional DVDs for coaching coxswains. Yasmin also hosts COXSWAINation.com, a web resource for rowing coaches and coxswains.