British Olympic Rowers: Names to Know

Britain has a deep Olympic rowing tradition. This is a selective list of names that come up often, grouped by era, with a line on what each is known for. It is not a complete roll.

Early champions

Jack Beresford won Olympic medals across several Games in the 1920s and 1930s, including gold in the single sculls in 1924, and finished with five medals at five Games, three of them gold. He is often cited as an example of long Olympic careers in rowing. Read more in our Jack Beresford profile.

The Redgrave and Pinsent era

Steve Redgrave won gold at five consecutive Olympics, from Los Angeles 1984 to Sydney 2000. His golds came in different boat classes: a coxed four, a coxless pair and a coxless four. He was later knighted. See Steve Redgrave.

Matthew Pinsent won four golds between 1992 and 2004, rowing with Redgrave in the pair and the four. See Matthew Pinsent.

James Cracknell won gold at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 in the coxless four.

Greg and Jonny Searle are brothers who won gold in the coxed pair at Barcelona 1992 and feature in our Olympic rowing brothers piece. The brothers also took bronze in the coxless four at Atlanta 1996, and Greg won bronze in the men’s eight at London 2012.

Modern champions

Katherine Grainger won medals at five consecutive Olympics, including gold in the double sculls with Anna Watkins at London 2012. She was later made a dame. See Katherine Grainger.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won gold in the women’s pair at London 2012 and Rio 2016. See Helen Glover and Heather Stanning.

Pete Reed won three Olympic golds, in the coxless four in 2008 and 2012 and in the eight in 2016. See Pete Reed.

Andrew Triggs Hodge, Alex Gregory and Tom James were members of the British men’s coxless four that won gold at London 2012 alongside Reed.

Alan Campbell won bronze in the men’s single sculls at London 2012.

Paris 2024

Great Britain won eight rowing medals at Paris 2024, three of them gold. Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won the women’s lightweight double sculls, and Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw won the women’s quadruple sculls. The men’s eight also took gold, and Helen Glover added silver in the women’s coxless four.

Boat classes by name

Many of these names are best understood by boat class. A quick guide:

Class	Typical British stars
Coxless pair	Redgrave, Pinsent, Glover, Stanning
Coxless four	Redgrave, Pinsent, Cracknell, Reed, Triggs Hodge
Double sculls	Grainger, Watkins
Single sculls	Beresford, Alan Campbell

For what the boat classes are and how they differ, see what Olympic rowing boats are called.

How to read this list

Olympic crews change, and many rowers combine Olympic medals with World Championship titles. Rowers also move between boat classes as their careers develop, so a name may appear in more than one section above. Being in the boat is not the same as being a leading star: crews win together, and the list above is a starting point, not a ranking.

For results from the most recent Games, see rowing at Paris 2024. For the wider story, read British rowing’s Olympic history, or return to the Olympic rowing hub.