UC alum making historic waves
Lindner grad scores third gold medal, is finalist in World Rowing awards
On a crisp fall day off the coast of Turkey, University of Cincinnati alum Christopher Bak charged ahead for his last beach sprint of the 2025 World Rowing Championships.
With a 26-second lead on Spain, Bak raced back to shore making history as the most decorated beach sprint rower of all time.
Beach sprint rowing first appeared in 2015 in Italy and has rapidly transitioned from a niche, coastal activity into a globally recognized discipline. Its popularity is surging due to its inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Athletes start on their feet on the beach, literally sprint to a waiting open-hulled boat, row straight out 250 meters, turn at a buoy, row back to shore and sprint on foot to the finish line.
Bak made history when he became a three-time beach sprints world champion.
“You row straight out in the ocean there, you slalom some buoys, you come straight back,” Bak explained. “It’s a different style of racing from traditional rowing, but it’s very fast-paced, pretty exciting.” For pros like Bak, the whole high-energy ordeal takes no more than three minutes.
His gold at the 2025 World Championships was his third win and sixth time medaling overall. Bak’s achievements put him in the running for World Rowing’s Men’s Crew of the Year, a competitive award with only three nominees across the globe. Winners will be announced at the World Rowing Awards hosted at Switzerland’s Olympic Museum on Jan. 24.
Not only is Bak in the running, but his coach, a UC faculty member, is nominated as well. Marc Oria, assistant professor of research at the UC College of Medicine, is one of four finalists for World Rowing’s Coach of the Year. The two have been working together since Oria joined the coaching team at UC back in 2017.
“He has a belief in every single athlete,” Bak said of Oria. “I can’t say enough good words about him.”
There was something about the University of Cincinnati that I just loved.
Christopher Bak UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, Class of 2019
Opportunity in the Queen City
“I saw the evolution myself. It’s fantastic to see an athlete grow the way he did being just a kid from Clermont County in Ohio. It’s just amazing,” Oria said. “People are surprised all the time, saying, ‘You don't have an ocean! How can he be so good in the ocean?’”
It was the people Bak met at UC, from his coaches to the team, that made all the difference.
Excellence in rowing landed Bak offers at schools including Yale and Cornell. “But there was something about the University of Cincinnati that I just loved,” Bak explained. He had the opportunity to meet and race with some of UC’s crew ahead of his first year and instantly felt a bond.
“I thought, ‘This is the spot that I want to be in.’ Not only academically — Cincinnati is the city where I grew up. It’s home.”
He had the full college experience while rowing for UC’s club team. As a student in UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business, he added a minor in real estate and co-oped with a local logistics company.
“It was an awesome opportunity to be able to train, make a little money on the side and get real-world experience,” Bak said. A full-time athlete these days, Bak said his work experience helped prepare him for his early career and the co-founding of his own rowing organization in 2023.
Oria coaches the US coastal rowing team while working as a radiation oncologist at UC.
Bak started out in lightweight team rowing for UC, and while he was very successful, working with Oria helped him find his niche in international coastal rowing.
“I was a rower myself with an international team in Spain before I moved here,” coach Oria said. “I had that international experience and coaching experience that Bak needed to to start excelling in his sport.”
In an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Bak said that the pair have traveled the world together, achieving goals Bak “never thought were possible.”
Olympic-sized goals
Bak already has his sights set on his next goal: Standing at the top of the podium, winning gold for Team USA.
“Our team got second at trials, so we just missed out on the Olympics for Paris. Which was tough,” explained Bak. “But it’s those losses that motivate you. And through that process I had been getting more and more involved within coastal rowing.”
Bak has medaled six times since he started competing with the US coastal rowing team in 2021.
In 2023, the International Olympic Committee announced that coastal rowing will make its debut at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. “At that point, I had a couple beach sprint championships under my belt, so I knew it was my wheelhouse,” Bak said. “Defending that title this year at the World Championships, there's a lot of good momentum rolling into 2028.”
“He’s very competitive and very committed,” Oria said on working with Bak. “His head was always at, ‘I want to make the national team.’ That was his goal from the beginning.”
Competing in LA would be a full circle moment for Bak, who was inspired to row after seeing the sport at the 2012 Olympic Games. “There’s all these cool, crazy sports that you never get to see on a daily basis,” he said. “I saw rowing and thought, ‘That looks really fun.’”
Flash-forward after years of training, and Bak and Oria are making waves for Cincinnati on the world stage.
Bearcats for Life
Join us as we redefine what it means to be a Bearcat — where every learner is supported, valued and equipped to tackle the challenges of tomorrow. It’s our promise.
Featured image at top of Christopher Bak competing in the 2025 beach sprint championships. All photos provided courtesy of Row2k
Related Stories
President Neville Pinto welcomes UC back for 207th academic year
August 25, 2025
UC President Neville Pinto shares welcome back message for Fall 2025: The power of a public mission in a changing world
UC alum making historic waves
January 23, 2026
Christopher Bak is a UC Lindner alum making history. His gold at the 2025 World Championships was his third win and fifth time medaling overall. Bak’s achievements put him in the running for World Rowing’s Men’s Crew of the Year, a competitive award with only three nominees across the globe. Winners will be announced at the World Rowing Awards hosted at Switzerland’s Olympic Museum on Jan. 24. Not only is Bak in the running, but his coach, a UC faculty member, is nominated as well. Mark Oria, assistant professor of research at the UC College of Medicine, is one of four finalists for World Rowing’s Coach of the Year. The two have been working together since Oria joined the coaching team at UC back in 2017.
Back to School 2025: UC’s sustained growth
August 25, 2025
The University of Cincinnati will continue to see growth in enrollment as classes begin Monday, Aug. 25, with a projected 54,000 students — a 1.4% increase over last year.