Alison Mowbray

Last updated

Alison Mowbray
Born (1971-02-01) 1 February 1971 (age 52)
NationalityBritish
Occupation Rower
Known for Olympic silver medalist

Alison Mowbray (born 1 February 1971) is a British former rower who won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics competing in the women's quadruple scull.

Contents

Rowing career

Mowbray rowed for the Liverpool University and Polytechnic Boat Club [1] [2] and the Cambridge University Women's Boat Club (CUWBC). While at Cambridge she rowed in the 1994 and 1995 Boat Races and served as CUWBC President in 1995. [3]

Mowbray took part in two Olympic Games, winning a silver medal, and five World Rowing Championships. In 2000 she rowed in the single sculls event but only qualified for the B Final, finishing fourth. In 2004, she earned her place in the national team in the GB trials and was assigned to the quadruple sculls for the upcoming World Rowing Cup and Olympics, joining the other top four finishers Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton and Rebecca Romero. [4] The quartet won gold in the first and third regattas and silver at the Olympics. [5] [6]

Personal life

Mowbray graduated with first-class honours from the University of Liverpool [7] and completed her PhD in molecular biology at the University of Cambridge, where she was a member of Gonville and Caius College. [3] [8] After her second Boat Race, she put her rowing career on hold in order to finish her doctorate. [9]

In her autobiography Gold Medal Flapjack, Silver Medal Life, Mowbray described herself as an "unlikely" Olympian who had grown up excelling in music rather than sports. She only took up rowing seriously while at university. [1] [9]

Mowbray qualified as a teacher at Roehampton Institute and taught chemistry at Wycombe High School. At the time of the 2004 Olympics, she was the second schoolteacher in Team GB to earn a medal at the games. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Redgrave</span> British rower

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave is a British retired rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds. He is the most successful male rower in Olympic history, and the only man to have won gold medals at five Olympic Games in an endurance sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Grainger</span> British rower

Dame Katherine Jane Grainger is a British former rower and current Chair of UK Sport. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion. She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020, and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caius Boat Club</span>

Caius Boat Club is the boat club for members of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. The club has rowed on the River Cam since 1827, and like the other college boat clubs its aim is to gain and hold the headship of the Lent Bumps and May Bumps, now held in eight-oared boats, separately for men and women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide University Boat Club</span>

The Adelaide University Boat Club is a rowing club affiliated with the University of Adelaide. The club was founded in 1881, and in 1896 helped to form the Adelaide University Sports Association. The main clubrooms, donated by Robert Barr Smith in 1909, are located on the north bank of the River Torrens on War Memorial Drive, adjacent to the Adelaide University Sports Grounds. The shed has two boat bays, a gym and weights room and a small bar. The club also leases a secondary boatshed at the South Australian Rowing Association complex on Military Road at West Lakes, and also trains regularly at Port Adelaide's North Arm Creek and Murray Bridge. Members have included rowers of all levels, from total beginners to Olympic Gold Medallists. The club shares the nickname "The Blacks" with the Adelaide University Football Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annabel Vernon</span> British rower

Annabel Morwenna Vernon is a retired British rower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Houghton</span> British rower

Frances Houghton MBE is a 5 time Olympic rower (2000–2016), 4 times World Champion and 3 times Olympic Silver medallist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Romero</span> English rower and racing cyclist

Rebecca Jayne Romero, MBE is an English sportswoman, a former World Champion and Olympic Games silver medallist at rowing, and a former World champion and an Olympic champion track cyclist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Watkins</span> British rower

Anna Rose Watkins MBE PhD is a British rower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caryn Davies</span> American rower

Caryn Davies is an American rower. She won gold medals as the stroke seat in women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame. She has served as a Vice President of the U.S. Olympians Association and as athletes' representative to the Board of USRowing.

Sarah Katharine Winckless is a British former rower. She won a bronze medal in Double sculls with her partner Elise Laverick at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, and was twice world champion, in 2005 and 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Rodford</span> British rower

Beth Rodford is a British rower. Rodford participated in two Olympic games, 2008 Summer in Beijing and 2012 Summer in London. At Beijing, she finished in fifth place in the Women's Eight. In 2012 at London, she finished in sixth position in the quadruple sculls. She announced her retirement from international rowing on 16 December 2015.

Hannah Every-Hall is an Australian former rower, a national champion, World Champion and Olympian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerry Hore</span> Australian rower

Kerry Hore is an Australian former rower, a national champion, world-champion and four-time Olympian who competed in the women's quadruple sculls at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. She was in Australian quad sculls which won a 2003 World Championship and a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Glover</span> British rower

Helen Glover is a British professional rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. Ranked the number 1 female rower in the world in 2015–16, she is a two-time Olympic champion, triple World champion, quintuple World Cup champion and quadruple European champion. She and her partner Heather Stanning were the World, Olympic, World Cup and European record holders, plus the Olympic, World and European champions in the women's coxless pairs. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quadruple sculls.

Catherine Rose Greves, also known as Katie Greves, is an Olympic Games silver medallist British rower, triple Olympian and former European Champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eve MacFarlane</span> New Zealand rower

Eve Macfarlane is a New Zealand rower. Described as a "natural rower", she went to the 2009 World Rowing Junior Championships within a few months of having taken up rowing and won a silver medal. She represented New Zealand at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as the country's youngest Olympian at those games. She was the 2015 world champion in the women's double sculls with Zoe Stevenson. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, they came fourth in the semi-finals and thus missed the A final.

Melanie Wilson is a British rower who competed for the GB rowing team. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she competed in the Women's quadruple sculls. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won a silver medal in the women's eight.

Polly Swann is a British rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. She is a former World and European champion in the women's coxless pairs, having won the 2013 World Rowing Championships at Chungju in Korea, and the 2014 European Rowing Championships at Belgrade, Serbia with her partner Helen Glover. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won a silver medal in the women's eight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brianna Stubbs</span>

Brianna Stubbs is an elite British rower and research scientist who won two gold medals for Great Britain at the 2013 U23 and 2016 World Rowing Championships. She was the youngest person to row across the English Channel when she completed the feat in 2004, at the age of 12. Her research is focussed on the metabolism of ketone drinks, and has been based at Oxford University. In 2014, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women.

Charlotte Ruby L. Hodgkins-Byrne is a British rower who competes in international level events. She is the younger sister of World Rowing Championships bronze medalist Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne.

References

  1. 1 2 Mowbray, 2013, p.37
  2. "Olympian Alison Mowbray: On flapjacks, the french horn, cambridge blues and winning silver". The Cambridge Student . University of Cambridge. 9 March 2014. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 "CUWBC Rowers are going for Gold in Athens". Cambridge University Women's Boat Club. 12 August 2004.
  4. "Trials: GB Trials – A and B finals / April 14, 2004". row2k.com.
  5. Newman, Paul (22 August 2004). "British women gain degree of success by capturing silver in quadruple sculls". The Independent .
  6. "The sports that led the way". The Daily Telegraph . 29 August 2004.
  7. Mowbray, 2013, p.75
  8. "1990–1995". Caius Boat Club. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Alison Mowbray's personal struggle from Cambridge Blue to Olympic silver". The Cambridge Student . University of Cambridge. 5 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  10. "Alison Mowbray". Times Educational Supplement . 24 August 2004.