Staff Directory
Yasmin Farooq
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- Phone:
- (650) 387-8969
Few figures in women's rowing have achieved at the level of Yasmin "Yaz" Farooq—as an athlete, Olympian, World Champion, mentor and coach. Entering her 11th season as head coach at Washington in 2026-27, Farooq has guided the Huskies to two NCAA championships, seven conference titles, and continued one of the most successful traditions in collegiate rowing while building a reputation as one of the sport's premier developers of talent.
Entering her 11th season as the Washington head coach in 2026-27, Farooq’s résumé as an athlete, mentor and coach is unparalleled. Even the Cliff’s Notes version is lengthy. A walk-on at the University of Wisconsin, Farooq went on to accomplish the following, among many other feats:
• Coxed Wisconsin JV to 1986 national championship
• Served as team captain and earned MVP as a senior with the Badgers
• Two-time Olympian as the coxswain of the U.S.A. women’s eight, in 1992 and 1996
• Coxed the U.S. women’s eight to its first-ever World Championship in 1995 and also won a silver medal at three other World Championship regattas
• Led Stanford to its first-ever women’s rowing NCAA Championship in 2009
• First coach ever to win an NCAA rowing title in their first year at a winning program, leading the Huskies to the title in 2017, her debut season at UW
• In 2017, coached the first team ever to sweep all three finals at NCAAs
• In 2019, coached the second team ever to sweep all three NCAA finals, winning another national title while setting regatta records in all three events
• Three-time National Coach of the Year (2009, 2017, 2019)
• Six-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year
• 2026 Big Ten Coach of the Year
• Six-time Pac-12 Champion coach
• Two-time Big Ten Champion coach
• Inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021
Beyond championships and medals, Farooq has earned a national reputation for developing athletes. A former walk-on herself, she has guided countless novices into elite collegiate competitors, national team members and Olympians, while mentoring generations of student-athletes in their academic, professional and personal pursuits.
Farooq’s tenure as UW coach has been highly successful. Washington has won two NCAA titles under her leadership, along with five Pac-12 Championships and two Big Ten crowns, which came in Washington’s first two years as a member of its new conference. The Huskies have also made the NCAA podium as a team an additional five times and have maintained the program’s streak of a top-10 finish in all 29 NCAA Championship Regattas.
In 2026, the Huskies earned a second consecutive Big Ten Championship, notching victories in six of seven grand finals, and finished in a tie for sixth place at NCAA Championships, once again outperforming their seed. UW rower Aisha Rocek was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year for the second straight season and Farooq picked up her first Big Ten Coach of the Year award. Additionally, Washington’s Jayna Palmer, who had not rowed prior to college and who spent all season in the Huskies’ varsity eight, earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Farooq was also named Region 4 Coach of the Year by the CRCA, while Washington also earned Region 4 Coaching Staff of the Year.
To date, in 10 seasons under Farooq, UW has had 266 women’s rowing team members named to Pac-12 or Big Ten All-Academic Teams, and 66 named to the CRCA Academic All-America team. Additionally, 38 Washington athletes have earned All-America from the CRCA under Farooq.
In 2024-25, Farooq helped usher the program into a new era as Washington joined the Big Ten Conference. In their first trip to the Big Ten Championships, Farooq's Huskies made history, sweeping all seven grand finals to earn the UW athletic department's first-ever Big Ten team championship. The Huskies were just the second program ever to sweep every Big Ten final.
At 2025 NCAA Championships, Washington recorded another podium finish, taking fourth place overall, while earning silver medals in both the second eights and the fours.
Rocek was named Big Ten Women's Rowing Athlete of the Year in the Huskies' first season in their new conference.
In 2024, the Huskies finished fifth at NCAA Championships, as all three crews reached the grand finals. Following the season, the UW women's program watched with pride as seven UW women, all of whom were coached by Farooq, represented their countries at the Olympic Games. Three of those UW alumnae earned bronze medals: Phoebe Spoors (New Zealand four), Tabea Schendekehl (German quad), and Holly Dunford (British eight).
Washington also maintained its reputation as “Coxswain U” as Nina Castagna became the fourth different UW alumna to cox the U.S. women’s eight at the Olympics, a run that covers the 1984, 1988, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games (and, notably, Farooq served in that role in 1992 and 1996).
The 2022-23 season may have represented one of the Huskies' best under Farooq. Washington headed to the NCAA Championships seeded No. 8 overall in the varsity eight and No. 4 in the second varsity eight. Had those seedings borne out, UW's streak of podium (top-four) finishes under Farooq would end.
Instead, the Huskies finished second in each of the top-two races, earning themselves the silver medal as a team as well. It was the second runner-up finish under Farooq.
The 2023 finish followed a fourth-place team finish at the 2022 NCAA Championships, and third place at the 2021 event, when Washington's second eight and four both won their grand final. In 2021, Farooq was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, while rower Ella Cossill was the conference's Rower of the Year.
Under Farooq's guidance, the program has continued to turn out national team athletes at a steady pace, as evidenced by the 2020 Games (held in 2021). Ten UW alumnae traveled to the Tokyo Olympic Games, where Farooq served as a support coach for the United States team.
In 2019, after winning a third straight Pac-12 title, Washington pulled off its second sweep at the NCAA Championships – just the second ever. The Huskies' varsity eight (racing in the first final of the day) stunned the crowd in Indianapolis with an incredible come-from behind victory, which was followed by wins by the UW's second varsity eight and the varsity four.
For her and her team's successes in 2019, Farooq was named the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association's National Coach of the Year, while her staff earned Coaching Staff of the Year. She was also the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2019.
While the 2020 season was almost entirely lost due to the global pandemic, the UW women continued to excel in the classroom. In the winter, 2020, academic quarter, a total of 23 members of the women's team made the Deans List. The following quarter (spring, 2020), that number ballooned to 36. A total of 23 women made the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll for 2020.
In her first year in charge of the Huskies – 2016-17 – Farooq led the UW to historic heights. Washington won the NCAA Championship on Lake Mercer in New Jersey in unprecedented fashion, becoming the first team in the 21-year history of the NCAA regatta to win all three grand finals. She was also the first coach ever to lead two different programs to a national championship (having led Stanford to the 2009 title) and the first ever to win NCAAs in their first year at the winning school.
And while the NCAA title was clearly the top of the list of accomplishments in 2016-17, there were others, as the Huskies swept the Pac-12 Championships and Farooq and her staff both won the CRCA national awards.
More success followed in the spring of 2018. For the second year in a row, the UW women won the Pac-12 Conference Championship, sweeping all five races at Lake Natoma. The Huskies also hosted one of the most memorable Windermere Cup/Opening Day regattas ever as two UW entries hung in with an experienced Dutch National Team eight. At NCAAs, Washington's women won the championship in the second varsity eight and finished second in both the varsity eight and varsity four, earning the team an overall second-place finish.
Farooq was named CRCA District V Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Farooq came to Conibear Shellhouse in the summer of 2016 after 10 seasons as head coach at Stanford. The CRCA National Coach of the Year in 2009, she had also been named the CRCA West Region Coach of the Year in 2009 and the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in both 2008 and 2014.
In her final event in charge of the Cardinal, at the 2016 NCAA regatta at Lake Natoma, Farooq led the Cardinal to a fourth-place overall finish, one point ahead of the fifth-place Huskies. The Stanford varsity eight finished third in the grand final, just a couple of feet ahead of fourth-place Brown.
A total of 28 Stanford rowers during her tenure were named CRCA All-America. At Stanford, Farooq coached Elle Logan, an NCAA champion (2009), three-time world champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012, both in the U.S. eight) and the Pac-12 Women's Rower of the Century.
Also under Farooq, 138 Cardinal rowers earned Academic All-Pac-12 and 74 were named CRCA Scholar-Athletes.
Farooq served as a coxswain for the United States National Team women's eight from 1989 to 1996 and first competed at the Olympics at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. At the 1996 Games in Atlanta, she was the U.S. captain.
As an international coxswain, she won three silver medals at World Championship regattas, in 1990, 1993 and 1994, and her international career reached its pinnacle in 1995, when her U.S. eight won the World Championship in Finland, the first-ever world title for a United States women's eight.
Farooq began her career as a coxswain as a freshman at Wisconsin in 1984, winning a national championship in the JV8 in 1986 and eventually serving as captain and earning team MVP honors as a senior. Thanks to her exploits at Wisconsin, with the U.S. National Team and as a coach, Farooq was named to the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
A native of Waupun, Wis., Farooq has served as a television commentator for NBC Universal for four Olympic Games and, along with her husband, has produced instructional DVDs for coaching coxswains. She earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Wisconsin in 1988.
From her beginnings as a Wisconsin walk-on to Olympic captain, world champion and Hall of Fame coach, Farooq's impact on the sport continues to shape generations of rowers. Her influence is evident not only in championship trophies and Olympic medals, but in the athletes she has developed and the enduring excellence of the Washington women's rowing program.
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