| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | July 23, 1955 (age 68) Sedro-Woolley, Washington, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
John Stuart Stillings (born July 23, 1955 in Sedro-Woolley, Washington) is an American former competitive rower and Olympic silver medalist.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | July 23, 1955 (age 68) Sedro-Woolley, Washington, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
John Stuart Stillings (born July 23, 1955 in Sedro-Woolley, Washington) is an American former competitive rower and Olympic silver medalist.
Stillings was the coxswain of the U.S. men’s four with coxswain that won the silver medal in the men's coxed fours competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles with Edward Ives, Thomas Kiefer, Michael Bach, and Gregory Springer.
One of the most successful coxswains in University of Washington history, Stillings guided the Huskies to two collegiate National Championships and its first and only Henley Royal Regatta Grand Challenge Cup victory in 1977, where the collegiate team defeated a heavily favored British National team.
Along the way to the Olympic Games, the Edmonds, Washington native and Husky Hall of Famer, won five U.S. club national championships and gold as the coxswain of the U.S. men’s eight-oared crew at the 1983 Pan American Games.
In a sport dominated by young athletes, Stillings accomplished a successful come-back to international rowing at the age of 48, winning the gold as coxswain of the U.S. men’s eight-oared crew at the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic.
A leader in the worldwide Olympic movement, Stillings serves as president of the Washington State Chapter of the U.S. Olympians Association and is actively involved in connecting local Olympians with non-profit organizations throughout the state. Stillings is an accomplished painter with works on display with the Art of the Olympians. [1]
Stillings still competes in international masters rowing competitions. He is married to Olympic gold medalist and fellow University of Washington alumnus Betsy Beard-Stillings. The two make their home in Seattle and have two children.
Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars—one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
Rowing is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States. The first intercollegiate race was a contest between Yale and Harvard in 1852. In the 2018–19 school year, there were 2,340 male and 7,294 female collegiate rowers in Divisions I, II and III, according to the NCAA. The sport has grown since the first NCAA statistics were compiled for the 1981–82 school year, which reflected 2,053 male and 1,187 female collegiate rowers in the three divisions. Some concern has been raised that some recent female numbers are inflated by non-competing novices.
The men's eight event was a rowing event conducted as part of the 1964 Summer Olympics programme. It was held from 12 to 15 October at the Toda Rowing Course. There were 14 boats from 14 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The event was won by the United States, returning the top of the podium after losing their eight-Games winning streak with a fifth-place finish in 1960; it was the nation's 11th overall victory in the men's eight. The defending champions, the United Team of Germany, took silver; the Germans defeated the United States in the opening round but lost the rematch in the final after the Americans advanced through the repechage. Czechoslovakia repeated as bronze medalists.
The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) governs intercollegiate rowing between varsity men's heavyweight, men's lightweight, and women's lightweight rowing programs across the United States, while the NCAA fulfills this role for women's open weight rowing. It is the direct successor to the Rowing Association of American Colleges, the first collegiate athletic organization in the United States, which operated from 1870–1894.
The men's eight (M8+) competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 11 to August 17 at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. Seven of nine national teams returned from the men's eight competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics to compete again, joined by the host nation. A total of 75 competitors took part, with three substitutions made during the competition. The event was won by Canada, the nation's first victory in the men's eight since 1992 and third overall. The British team took silver, with the Americans finishing with the bronze medal.
The Vesper Boat Club is an amateur rowing club located at #10 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1865 as the Washington Barge Club, the club's name was changed to Vesper Boat Club in 1870.
Richard Schmidt is a German former representative sweep-oar rower. He is a six time world champion, a four time Olympian, an Olympic gold & silver medallist and held a seat in the German senior men's eight — the Deutschlandachter — constantly from 2009 to 2021. He rowed at seven when the Deutschlandachter at the 2017 World Rowing Cup II set a world's best time of 5.18.68, which was still the standing world mark as of 2021.
Martin Sauer is a German former representative rowing coxswain. He was an eight-time world champion at the senior level and three-time underage world champion. He is a triple Olympian and a triple Olympic medallist. He held his seat as coxswain of the German senior men's eight — the Deutschlandachter — constantly from 2009 to 2021 and steered that crew to their six world championship titles and also when at the 2017 World Rowing Cup II they set a world's best time of 5.18.68, which still the standing world mark as of 2021.
Michael Richardson Bach is an American former competitive rower and Olympic silver medalist.
Stephen Frederick Evans OAM is an Australian former national champion, world champion, dual Olympian and Olympic medal winning rower.
Yasmin Farooq 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 joined the rowing team in 1984 as a coxswain. She was a member of the 1986 national champion JV eight and served as captain and MVP of the team her senior year. A two-time Olympian and world champion in rowing, Farooq later became a college coach at Stanford University where she helped the Cardinal win its first ever Pac-12 and NCAA titles in rowing. At the University of Washington, her team swept the NCAA Championship for the first-time in history, then repeated the feat in 2019 setting NCAA records in all three events. She has been named Pac-12 coach of the year six times and national coach of the year three times. She was inducted into the USRowing Hall of Fame in 2014 and awarded the Ernestine Bayer Woman of the Year award by USRowing in 2017. In 2021, Farooq was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame.
John Riley is an American rower.
Allen Perry Rosenberg was an American rowing coxswain and coach. As a coxswain he won a gold and a silver medal at the 1955 Pan American Games and a silver at the 1958 European Championships. As a coach he was responsible for more than 24 gold and silver medals at the Olympics and world championships.
The men's eight competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia took place at the Sydney International Regatta Centre. It was held from 18 to 24 September. There were 9 boats from 9 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The event was won by Great Britain, the nation's first victory in the men's eight since back-to-back victories in 1908 and 1912; the three total gold medals was second-most among nations behind the United States. Australia took silver, while Croatia's debut in the men's eight was good for bronze.
The University of Oregon Rowing Team is located in Eugene, Oregon, and practices at Dexter Reservoir nearby. The team was founded in 1967 and has operated continuously under the guidance of the University. At Oregon, men's and women's teams practice together and compete against other teams regionally and nationally in a number of regattas each year. Even before the passage of Title IX in 1972, the team received national attention for Coach Don Costello's controversial use of female coxswain Victoria Brown in crew, in a previously all-male sport.
The men's coxed pair rowing competition at the 1980 Summer Olympics took place at Krylatskoye Sports Complex Canoeing and Rowing Basin, Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. The event was held from 20 to 27 July. There were 11 boats from 11 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The event was won by Harald Jährling, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich, and coxswain Georg Spohr of East Germany, the first men to successfully repeat as Olympic champions in the event. It was also the first time that a crew of the same three men earned multiple medals of any colour. East Germany's three straight medals matched the United States for most among nations to that point. Silver went to the Soviet Union again, though with an entirely different team from its 1976 runner-up crew; the silver medalists this time were Viktor Pereverzev, Gennadi Kryuçkin, and cox Aleksandr Lukyanov. Duško Mrduljaš, Zlatko Celent, and cox Josip Reić earned Yugoslavia's first medal in the event with their bronze.
The men's eight competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics took place at Grünau Regatta Course in Berlin, Germany. The event was held from 12 to 14 August, and was won by a United States crew from the University of Washington. There were 14 boats from 14 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The victory was the fifth consecutive gold medal in the event for the United States and seventh overall; the Americans had won every time they competed. Italy repeated as silver medalists. Germany earned its first medal in the men's eight since 1912 with its bronze. Canada's three-Games podium streak ended.
The men's coxed pair competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics took place at took place at Lake Albano, Italy. It was held from 31 August to 3 September. There were 18 boats from 18 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The three nations on the podium were the same as those in 1956, though in a different order. The event was won by the United Team of Germany, with Bernhard Knubel and Heinz Renneberg rowing with Klaus Zerta the coxswain. Zerta is the youngest confirmed male gold medalist in Olympic history at 13 years and 283 days, just beating Hans Bourquin by 9 days. The 1900 men's coxed pair gold-medal-winning coxswain may have been younger, but the identities and ages of most coxswains in that event, including the gold medalist, are not known. The Soviet Union, bronze in 1956, took silver this time with Antanas Bagdonavičius, Zigmas Jukna, and Igor Rudakov. Defending champions the United States took bronze; Conn Findlay was the only man from the 1956 podium to return, this time with Richard Draeger as his rowing partner and Kent Mitchell the coxswain.
The men's eight competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics took place at took place at Lake Albano, Italy. It was held from 31 August to 3 September. There were 14 boats from 14 nations, with each nation limited to a single boat in the event. The event was won by the United Team of Germany in that combined team's debut; it was the first medal for any German team since the 1936 Games in Berlin and first-ever gold medal in the event for a German team. Canada repeated as silver medalists. Czechoslovakia won its first men's eight medal with a bronze. The United States, which had won the last eight times the event was held and all ten times the nation had appeared before, lost for the first time—finishing fifth, off the podium entirely, despite being among the contenders once again.
Oriel College Boat Club (OCBC) is the rowing club of Oriel College, Oxford. Rowing at Oriel is carried out from the college's own boathouse across Christ Church Meadow, on Boat House Island.