Shane Francis O'Mara (born December 18, 1982 in Buffalo, New York) is a five time national team American rower.
As a junior rower he set multiple records including the youngest winner of the Head of the Charles single sculls race. [1] He also represented the United States at the 2000 (as a junior) in Zagreb, Croatia.
O'Mara continued to row as senior athlete and represented the United States in sculling events several times: 2005 World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan; and 2006 World Rowing Championships in Dorney, England. He also sculled in two World Cup events in 2007. [2]
He was educated at The Gunnery (a prep school), Northeastern University and University of Cambridge in England. [3] As a member of Cambridge University Boat Club, he was selected to stroke the 2008 Blue Boat.
Rowing 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.
The Head of the Charles Regatta, also known as HOCR, is a rowing head race held on the penultimate complete weekend of October each year on the Charles River, which separates Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the largest 2-day regatta in the world, with 11,000 athletes rowing in over 1,900 boats in 61 events. According to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, the two-day event brings 225,000 people to the Greater Boston area and $72 million to the local economy.
Jacob Wetzel is a Canadian rower. He has represented both Canada and the United States at the World Championships and the Olympics. He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
The stretch of the River Thames between Mortlake and Putney in London, England is a well-established course for rowing races, particularly the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. It is often referred to as The Championship Course. The course is on the tidal reaches of the river often referred to as the Tideway. Due to the iconic shape of the Championship Course, in orthopaedic surgery, an "S" shaped incision along the crease of the elbow is commonly referred to as "a boat-race incision resembling the River Thames from Putney to Mortlake."
Lightweight rowing is a category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum body weight of competitors. According to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), this weight category was introduced "to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people".
Kieran Martin West is a retired English rower and Olympic champion who represented Great Britain.
Hampton School Boat Club (HSBC) is the rowing club of Hampton School. Each year the club produces 1st VIIIs that compete at Championship level in the United Kingdom. The club hosts two Head race events each year.
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.
The history of rowing as a sport has prevailed it as one of the oldest traditions in the world. What began as a method of transport and warfare eventually became a sport with a wide following, and a part of the cultural identity of the English speaking world. Rowing in its modern form developed in England in the 1700s.
Caryn Davies is an American rower. She won gold medals as the stroke seat in women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame. She has served as a Vice President of the U.S. Olympians Association and as athletes' representative to the Board of USRowing.
Marlow Rowing Club is a rowing club on the River Thames in England, on the southern bank of the Thames at Bisham in Berkshire, opposite the town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire just beside Marlow Bridge and on the reach above Marlow Lock. Founded in 1871, it is one of the main rowing and sculling centres in England. Members of the club have represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games and World Championships.
William Patrick Maher is an American rower who competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the men's double sculls. In 1969, he rowed for the United States Army out of Vesper Boat Club.
An eight is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing (crew). It is designed for eight rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or "cox".
Emma Twigg is a New Zealand rower. A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and is set to compete 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.
Cantabrigian Rowing Club, known as Cantabs, is a 'town' rowing and sculling club in Cambridge, UK.
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.
Women's rowing is the participation of women in the sport of rowing. Women row in all boat classes, from single scull to coxed eights, across the same age ranges and standards as men, from junior amateur through university-level to elite athlete. Typically men and women compete in separate crews although mixed crews and mixed team events also take place. Coaching for women is similar to that for men.
Olivia Coffey is an American rower. She won the gold medal in the quad sculls at the 2015 World Rowing Championships. Coffey was on the winning team of The Boat Race 2018.
Alice Jean White also known as Alice Jackson is a British-New Zealand female rower. She has represented both New Zealand and Great Britain in junior and senior level rowing competitions. White has competed in and twice won the annual UK Boat Race in 2017 and 2018, representing Cambridge, and helping to set the course record in the 2017 race. She has twice competed in the NCAA Championships in the United States. Originally from Yorkshire, England, she emigrated to first to New Zealand as a child, where she attended high school, before attending the University of California, Los Angeles to study psychobiology, and then Cambridge studying Clinical Neuroscience with a focus on Huntington’s disease.
Jack Lopas is a New Zealand rower. He is nominated to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the double sculls in a team with Chris Harris.