| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Birth name | Gary Joseph James Lynagh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 4 June 1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1988–98 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Commercial Rowing Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Gary Joseph James Lynagh OAM (born 4 June 1970) is an eleven time Australian national champion, three time World Champion and Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia at every premier international regatta from 1990 to 1998.
Lynagh's senior rowing was from the Commercial Rowing Club in Brisbane. He began contesting national lightweight championship sculling titles at Australian Rowing Championships in 1988 representing Commercial. In 1989 he was in a composite Queensland lightweight eight who won the national title and in 1990 he won two Australian national championships – the lightweight double scull and the quad scull titles. [1] He won the national championship quad in 1991, a single sculls title in 1992, the double scull in 1993 and 1994 and the quad in 1993, 1994 and 1996. [2] In 1996 in a composite Australian selection crew Lynagh also won the national lightweight coxless four title at the Australian Championships. [3]
He raced in the Queensland representative men's lightweight four who contested the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1998. [4] He contested the heavyweight singles sculls championship – the President's Cup – representing Queensland in 1993 and 1994.
Lynagh was first selected to represent Australia at Lake Barrington 1990 in the lightweight Australian quad scull. Lynagh rowed with Bruce Hick and two Tasmanians – Simon Burgess and Stephen Hawkins – to a bronze medal. [5] The following year at Vienna 1991 that same crew won gold and a World Championship title. They rowed through the field and won by 0.23 seconds. [6]
In 1992 Stephen Hawkins was selected in the Olympic heavyweight double scull and so the champion lightweight quad was broken up. At the 1992 lightweight World Championships Lynagh and Hick had success as a double winning the lightweight double scull world championship title . [7] [8] They repeated this feat at Racice 1993. [9] [10]
By Indianapolis 1994 Lynagh and Hick were rowing in the lightweight coxless four with South Australians Andrew Stunnell and James Seppelt. They took the silver medal. [9] Lynagh was back in the quad for Tampere 1995 – he stroked that crew to a sixth placing. [9]
In the 1995 Australia Day Honours Lynagh was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to rowing". [11]
The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta saw lightweight events introduced to the Olympic regatta for the first time. Lynagh was selected with his longstanding sculling partner Simon Burgess in the lightweight coxless four along with Haimish Karrasch and David Belcher. They made the Olympic final and placed sixth. [9]
Lynagh competed at all four World Rowing Cup events on the international calendar in 1997 and 1998. He was teamed with Anthony Edwards for the 1997 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, stroking their double scull to fifth place. [9] At the 1998 World Rowing Championships in Cologne he raced a double scull with his old partner Bruce Hick and had a disappointing result, finishing second in the repechage and third in the C/D semi-final for an overall 12th placing. This was his last representative appearance for Australia. [12]
Amber Jae Halliday is a former rower and cyclist from Adelaide, South Australia. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and a three-time world-champion in lightweight rowing. She rowed for South Australia on nine occasions for six victories in Interstate Regattas and won numerous Australian titles at the Australian National Championships.
Duncan Seth Free is a retired Australian rower and Olympic gold medallist. He is 4-time Olympian and two-time world champion who represented Australia at four world rowing championships in both sculls and sweep oared boats. He was a six-time Australian national sculling champion.
Anthony John Edwards is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a five time Olympian, triple Olympic medallist, a world champion and a six-time Australian national champion. He represented Australia at the premier world regattas consistently over a twenty-year period from 1993 to 2012.
Marguerite Houston is an Australian former lightweight rower. She is an Australian national champion, an Olympian and two-time World Champion. She contested state representative events at nine successive Australian Rowing Championships.
Stephen Mark Hawkins OAM is an Australian former national champion, World Champion and Olympic gold medal winning lightweight rower.
Simon Burgess is an Australian national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and dual Olympic silver medal-winning lightweight rower. He represented Australia ten times at World Rowing Championships between 1990 and 2002. He won world and national championships in both sculls and in sweep-oared boat classes during an eighteen-year elite level career.
Paul Reedy is an Australian former rower. He is a dual Olympian, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games silver medalist who competed over a seventeen-year period at the elite level. He was a fourteen-time Australian national champion across both sculling and sweep-oared boats and then coached six Australian crews to national championship titles. He later coached at the London Rowing Club and was appointed as British national Head Coach from 2009. He took Great Britain's lightweight women's sculling crews to Olympic and World Championship gold medals in 2012 and 2016.
Bruce Hick is an Australian national champion, three time World Champion and dual Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia over a fifteen-year period and rowed at ten World Rowing Championships.
Rebecca Susan Joyce is an Australian former rower, a sculler in the lightweight division. She was a five-time national champion, a 1995 world champion and Olympic medal winner.
Marina Ann Hatzakis is an Australian former rower - a dual Olympian who represented at world championships between 1993 and 2000.
Samuel Beltz is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a 16-time national champion, a world champion and dual Olympian. He competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and represented Australia at the premier world class regattas over a fifteen-year period from 1999 to 2014.
Paul Anthony Thompson MBE is an Australian elite level rowing coach and former rower. As a rower he was an Australian under-age champion, won a silver medal at the 1985 U23 World Championships and rowed in senior King's Cup eights for both South Australia and New South Wales. He has coached Australian and British crews to World Championship titles and Olympic medals including taking Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. By 2012 he was Great Britain's head coach for women and lightweights and took British crews to three gold and two silver medals at London 2012. Since 2022 he has been Rowing Australia's High Performance Director.
Roderick Chisholm is a British lightweight class former rower who represented both Great Britain and Australia at world championships. He is an Australian national champion, a World Champion and a dual Olympian who competed at the world class level in both sculls and in sweep-oared boats.
Haimish John Karrasch is an Australian former rower. He was a nine-time Queensland state representative, an eight-time Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and won a silver medal at the 1999 World Rowing Championships.
Lyall McCarthy OAM is a former Australian national champion lightweight rower and national rowing coach. He has coached Australian crews to gold medals at the World Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games.
James Seppelt is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. He was a seven time Australian national champion, won a silver medal at the 1994 World Rowing Championships and a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Rowing Championships.
Andrew Stunell is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. He was a two time Australian national champion, won a silver medal at the 1994 World Rowing Championships and a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Rowing Championships.
Jennifer Luff is an Australian former representative rower. In a nine year career at the elite level between 1988 and 1996 she won sixteen Australian national titles, raced for Australia at five World Rowing Championships and competed at the 1992 and the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 1990 and 1992 she won the full set of all three open women's sculling boat titles at the Australian Rowing Championships and mirrored that feat in 1995 when she won all three possible open women's titles in sweep-oared boats.
Paul Francis Rowe was an Australian representative rower and elite level rowing coach. He was an eight-time Australian national champion in both sweep oared and sculling boats across both lightweight and open divisions. He was Australia's lightweight sculling representative at the 1975 World Rowing Championships. He coached scullers and crews to three Australia national title wins and to world championships and to Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
Hamish Parry is a former Australian representative lightweight rower. He was a nine-time national champion in both sculling and sweep-oared crews and has sculled at underage and senior world championships from 2013 to 2021.
