| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 April 1994 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Coxless four | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Oxford Brookes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Rory Gibbs (born 3 April 1994) is a British representative rower - an Olympian and a two-time world champion. He won the 2022 and 2023 world championship titles in the British men's eight. [1] Between 2016 and 2023 he rowed in victorious crews across six events at the Henley Royal Regatta. [2]
Gibbs took up rowing after picking up injuries playing rugby. [1] He was educated at Millfield School and Oxford Brookes university where he was a relative late starter in taking up rowing. [2]
Racing for Oxford Brookes, Gibbs enjoyed an incredible run of victories at the Henley Royal Regatta as he proceeded through his developmental stages - in 2016 a victory in the Temple Challenge Cup (for university eights); in 2017 & 2018 victory in the Ladies' Challenge Plate (for club and university eights below international standard); in 2019 the Stewards' Challenge Cup (for club and university coxless fours). In 2022, he won the Grand Challenge Cup (the blue riband event at Henley) in the bow of a composite Leander/Oxford Brookes crew. [2] In 2023 again in Oxford Brookes colours, he was at five in the Leander/Oxford Brookes eight for another Grand Challenge Cup victory. [3]
Gibbs first made national selection for Great Britain into the U23 men's eight for the 2015 U23 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv. That crew rowed to a fifth placing. [4] In 2016 Gibbs was selected to the British coxed four for the U23 World Championships and another overall fifth placing. [4]
2019 saw Gibbs selected into the Great Britain men's senior squad and medal success soon followed. He won a gold medal in the coxless four at the 2019 European Rowing Championships with Oliver Cook, Matthew Rossiter and Sholto Carnegie [5] then that same crew won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. [6] [5]
That crew of Gibbs, Cook, Rossiter and Carnegie stayed together throughout the Covid lost season of 2020 whilst knowing their 2019 performances had qualified the boat for the eventual 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 2021, they won a second European gold medal as a 4- in Varese, Italy, [7] then took gold at the World Rowing Cup II. At the Tokyo Olympic regatta they won their heat, comfortably beating the eventual bronze medallists Italy. In the Olympic final they were in medal contention at each mark but were run down by the Italians in the last 500m and finished in fourth place. [4]
2022 saw Gibbs selected in the bow seat of the Great Britain senior men's eight. In that international season the eight won gold at two World Rowing Cups and at the 2022 European Rowing Championships. [8] Gibbs in the British eight went on to win gold and a world championship title at the 2022 World Rowing Championships in Račice. In 2023 Gibbs won a second successive world championship in the men's eight at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade. [9]
Thomas James MBE is a British rower, twice Olympic champion and victorious Cambridge Blue. In a British coxless four in 2012 he set a world's best time which still stood as of 2021.
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Oxford Brookes University Boat Club is the rowing club of Oxford Brookes University, England. Its large base is on the longest reach of the non-tidal parts of the Thames, at Wallingford, in Oxfordshire – about 6 miles (10 km) of easily rowable, little-congested river. The club has been very successful at pre-training and co-training many Olympic competitors including those for Great Britain who won 6 golds at Olympics spread across three consecutive games, starting with the games of 2000.
Jessica Morrison is an Australian representative rower and dual Olympian. She is an Australian national champion and won two silver medals at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. She competed in the Australian women's eight at the 2016 Summer Olympics and in two boats at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics doubling-up in the coxless pair and the coxless four. In the four at the Tokyo 2020 she won a gold medal and became an Olympic champion.
Reading University Boat Club is the rowing club for the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. It is based at a boat house in Christchurch Meadows on the River Thames in the Reading suburb of Caversham. The club has a focus on sculling. It has consistently been one of the more successful university rowing clubs in Britain, including topping the medal table at the BUCS regatta in 2011 and at the BUCS small boats head in 2014 and 2015, as well as wins at Henley Royal Regatta in 1986, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013, and is considered one of the top six university rowing clubs in the UK. A number of former members have competed at the Olympics, including double gold-medallists James Cracknell and Helen Glover. The club has organised the Reading University Head of the River race since 1935.
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Morgan Bolding is a British representative rower. He is a two-time world champion.
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Harry Brightmore is a British rowing coxswain and a two-time world champion.
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