Robert Norman Waddell is a New Zealand Olympic Gold Medalist and double World Champion Single sculler rower, and America's Cup yachtsman. He is a triple New Zealand Supreme 'Halberg Awards' Sportsperson of the year winner, 1998 to 2000. He holds the third fastest 2000 metre indoor rowing machine time in the world, clocking a time of 5 mins 36.6 secs (5:36.6), which was the previous world record for 19 years before the time was improved by Joshua Dunkley-Smith. He also held the record for 5000m on the rowing machine with a time of 14min 58sec. This made him the first person to go below 15 min for this distance. He holds a black belt in judo. He played rugby union for Waikato. Waddell was Chef de Mission of the 2014 and 2018 New Zealand Commonwealth Games teams, and the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Sonia Waddell is a New Zealand athlete. She represented her country at a World Junior Championship in hurdles before becoming a rower, in which sport she was twice an Olympic competitor and where she won silver at a World Rowing Championship. She later competed as a cyclist and won medals at a UCI Para-cycling Track World Championship as a sighted guide.
Rowing New Zealand is the sports governing body for rowing in New Zealand. Its purpose is to provide leadership and support to enable an environment of success for the New Zealand rowing community. This includes secondary schools, clubs, masters, universities and high performance.
Alexander Mahé Owens Drysdale is a New Zealand politician and retired rower. Drysdale is a two-time Olympic champion and a five-time world champion in the single sculls. He is a seven-time New Zealand national champion and five-time recipient of New Zealand Sportsman of the Year. He is the mayor-elect of Tauranga.
Richard William Tonks is a former national New Zealand rowing coach and a former rower who won a silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Through his coaching career he has coached crews to a total of 25 World Championship medals—including thirteen gold—and a total of seven Olympic medals—six of which were gold.
Eric Gordon Murray is a retired New Zealand rower and gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympic Games, as well as at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. He won six consecutive World Rowing Championship gold medals in the coxless pair plus two other gold medals in the coxless four and coxed pair. In 2012 an 2014 he set two world best times in the coxless pair and coxed pair respectively, which as of 2021 still stand as the world's best in those boat classes.
West End Rowing Club is based at Saunders Reserve on Rosebank Peninsula, in Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand. It has won numerous national, British Empire Games, Commonwealth, World and Olympic titles, with four club members winning five Olympic gold medals.
Rebecca Scown is a professional rower from New Zealand. Together with Juliette Haigh, she won the bronze medal in the women's coxless pair at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Previously they had won gold in the women's pair at the World Rowing Cup regatta in Lucerne, 2010 and at the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro and the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled. After winning a bronze medal with the New Zealand women's eight at the 2017 World Rowing Championships, she is having a break from rowing in the 2017/18 season.
Emma Kimberley Twigg is a New Zealand rower. A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and won gold in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021. Previous Olympic appearances were in 2008, 2012, and 2016. She has retired from rowing twice, first for master-level studies in Europe in 2015 and then after the 2016 Olympics, disappointed at having narrowly missed an Olympic medal for the second time. After two years off the water, she started training again in 2018 and won silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. Since her marriage in 2020, she has become an outspoken advocate for LGBT athletes. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Twigg won gold in the woman's single scull. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Twigg won Silver in the same event.
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 quintuple 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.
Heather Mary Stanning OBE is a retired British professional rower. As a member of the Great Britain rowing team, she is a double Olympic champion, double World champion, quadruple World Cup champion and double European champion. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quad sculls.
Louise Trappitt is a New Zealand rower. She has won bronze medals at World Rowing Championships in the women's quadruple scull in 2011, and in the women's pair in 2014.
Fiona Paterson is a New Zealand rower.
Grace Elizabeth Prendergast is a former New Zealand sweep rower. She is a 15-time national champion in the premier category, an Olympic champion, a five-time world champion and the current (2022) world champion in the coxless pair. She grew up in Christchurch, where she started rowing for the Avon Rowing Club in 2007. She competed at the Tokyo Olympics in two boat classes and won gold in the coxless pair and a silver in the eight and set a new world's best time in the pair. Various parties, including the World Rowing Federation, expected her to win medals in Tokyo. She was the highest ranked female rower in the world twice in a row in 2019 and 2021. Since 2014, her rowing partner in the coxless pair has been Kerri Gowler. Prendergast is also a Boat Race winner, having competed as part of Cambridge University Boat Club's (CUBC) women's crew in 2022. She retired from professional rowing in October 2022.
Kerri Leigh Williams is a New Zealand rower. She is a national champion, an Olympic champion and double medallist, a three-time world champion and a current (2019) world champion in both the coxless pair and the women's eight. Williams was born in Raetihi in 1993. She is of Māori descent, affiliating with Rangitāne iwi. She received her education at Nga Tawa Diocesan School in Marton. The school first started to offer a rowing programme in 2008 and a year later, Williams took this up. At the time, she was also competing as an equestrian but soon started focussing on rowing so much that she had to choose one of the sports. Her trainer told her three weeks after she had started rowing that she would one day represent New Zealand. Jackie Gowler, her younger sister by three years, took up rowing in 2010 inspired by her success; they have both made it into the New Zealand national rowing team. Their elder sister, Jaimee Gowler, remains active with horse riding. After school, Williams became a member of the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club.
Ruby Tew is a New Zealand Olympic rower.
Genevieve "Gen" Behrent is a New Zealand rower.
Frances "Francie" Turner is a New Zealand coxswain. She competed at the Rio Olympics with the New Zealand women's eight.
Olivia Loe is a New Zealand representative rower. She is a two-time world champion in the double scull and is the incumbent world champion winning gold at the 2019 World Rowing Championships with Brooke Donoghue. She has been selected in the New Zealand senior squad for the 2020 Summer Olympics but in a surprise move at the final crew selections Loe was replaced in the double scull by Hannah Osborne and selected to race the New Zealand women's quad-scull.
