| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Riilio Rii |
| Born | 22 June 1994 Port Vila, Vanuatu |
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 79 kg (174 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |  Vanuatu |
| Sport | Rowing |
| Event | Men's Single Sculls |
Riilio "Rio" Rii [1] [2] (born 22 June 1994) is a Ni-Van rower. [3] He was the flagbearer of Vanuatu at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, [4] earning attention for his shirtless, oiled get-up compared to Tongan fighter Pita Taufatofua. [5] In the men's single sculls race, Rii finished 30th overall. [6]
He started in the sport at 19, having taken up cricket before, and has won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Rowing Championships, [7] as well as appearing at three World Rowing Championships. [8]
Alexander Mahé Owens Drysdale is a retired New Zealand 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.
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.
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.
Thomas Matthew Ransley is a retired British rower. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro he was part of the British crew that won the gold medal in the eight, was twice a World Champion and in 2015 was the European Champion in the men's coxless four.
Mohamed Karim Sbihi is a British rower. He is a three-time Olympian and Olympic medal winner. He won a gold medal in the coxless four at 2016 Rio Olympics, and at the 2012 London Olympics he was in the British crew that won the bronze medal in the men's eight. He returned to the eight for the 2020 Tokyo games, again winning bronze.
Erik Horrie is an Australian wheelchair basketball player and a five-time world champion rower. He was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team. Switching to rowing in 2011, he made an immediate impact in the sport, first winning the NSW State Rowing Championships and then the National Rowing Championships in Adelaide. He has won silver medals at the 2012, 2016, 2020 Summer Paralympics and gold medals at the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Championships.
Victoria Thornley is a Welsh rower. She won a silver medal for Great Britain with Katherine Grainger in the women's double sculls at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the Great Britain team that finished fifth in the women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and finished fourth in the single sculls at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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.
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.
Paul O'Donovan is an Irish lightweight rower. He is an Olympic gold medallist in lightweight double sculls where he set a new world's best time for that event and is a five-time world champion in single and double sculls.
Moran Samuel is an Israeli paralympic basketball player and world champion rower. She was chosen to light a ceremonial torch on Israel's Independence Day in 2019. She represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Pita Nikolas Taufatofua is a Tongan athlete in taekwondo, cross-country skiing, and canoe. He is also a UNICEF ambassador and motivational speaker and lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Vanuatu competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's eighth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Gary O'Donovan is an Irish rower. Together with his brother Paul he won the gold medal in the lightweight double sculls at the 2016 European Rowing Championships, silver in the same discipline at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and gold at the 2018 World Rowing Championships. He was the flag bearer for Ireland during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Michael Brake is a New Zealand rower. He is a dual Olympian and won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020.
Thomas James Murray is a New Zealand rower. Born and raised in Blenheim, he is a member of New Zealand's national rowing team and has competed in the eight and in the coxless pair. In the smaller boat, he has medalled in two World Rowing Championships; bronze in 2017 and silver in 2019. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he competed with the eight and won gold in the same boat class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Murray has won four consecutive premier national titles in the coxless pair. He has been world champion in age group rowing events three times.
Australia participated at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021. It sent its largest away team - 179 athletes to a Summer Paralympics. Australia finished eighth on the gold medal table and sixth on the total medals table.
Bruno Cetraro Berriolo is a Uruguayan rower. He represented Uruguay in rowing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, racing in the lightweight men's double sculls.
Peter Purcell-Gilpin is a Zimbabwean rower who competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Malia Paseka is a Tongan Taekwondo athlete who made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was an opening ceremony flag bearer alongside Pita Taufatofua.
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