Biography
2016 culminated in Katherine and I winning a very special silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
I was born on the 30th November 1987 in St Asaph, Wales to parents Andrew and Gina. I have two elder sisters, Sam and Aysha. My first true passion was horses. I started riding when I was three years old and was lucky enough to have my own horse at the age of eight, specialising in show jumping from twelve.
I won many National Championships at junior and senior level. Winter Novice Champion at Hickstead, Blue Chip Champion, competing at Horse of the Year Show and Olympia and representing Wales were some of my highlights.
In 2007 “Sporting Giants” was a talent ID search for people over a certain height, who may have a talent for rowing. After putting myself forward and a couple of weekends testing, I was selected for the World Class Start programme. I had been at university for a month in London but my designated coach lived in Bath. Knowing that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I left university and moved to Bath.
Success came quite early at first. After 18 months I became Under 23 World Champion. Joining the senior GB team in 2010, gaining my first senior GB vest, and finishing 4th at the World Championships in the women’s eight.
In 2011, I won a bronze medal at the World Championships, also in the eight, and we went on to finish 5th at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
In 2013 and 2014 I competed in the single scull finishing 7th and 8th respectively. 2015 was the start of the double’s project with Dame Katherine Grainger. We finished 5th at the World Championships, qualifying the double scull for the Rio Olympic Games. 2016 culminated in Katherine and I winning a very special silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
After committing to training for a third Olympic Games, the single scull was where my dreams lay. I wanted the Tokyo 2020 Olympiad to be a very personal journey, seeing how quick I could be in the single. In 2017 I had a successful year, becoming European Champion and winning a silver medal at the World Championships.
2018 proved to be much more challenging. Having had a great winters training, I was looking forward to the season ahead. However, I had pushed my body a little too hard and by the middle of the summer season, was diagnosed with over training and forced to take some time off, missing the European and World Championships.
In 2019 I was back but it took me the whole season to find my fitness and speed once more. The year culminated with me finishing 4th in the world and qualifying the single scull for the Tokyo Olympic Games, the first time in 20 years a women’s single has qualified for the games.
The year of 2020 then brought the world to a standstill and with it, the delay of the Tokyo Olympics. Whilst training from home during the first UK lockdown I was knocked off my road bike and broke my elbow. After an operation and a huge amount of rehab, I was back in my boat after 5 months of land training. It took 6 months though to build up my right arm back to full strength.
The 2021 season was the toughest of my career. Mentally I was pretty worn down after the four years I had had, and with a virus over Christmas, struggling to find form and fresh doubts over the Olympics, I had to dig deep into my reserves of motivation and focus.
The Tokyo Olympics were of course very different. The constant testing leading in as well as the worry of picking up the virus, only added to the usual stresses but my coach Paul Reedy and I navigated it really well. The women’s single bought fierce competition and I knew I would need my best races just to get through to the final. I delivered this and had my best ever performances in the semi and final. finishing 4th and narrowly missing out on a medal was tough but I always said if I finished knowing I had given my heart and soul to the last 5 years and performed at my best on the day I could go away content, and thats exactly what I did.
I live in Henley-on-Thames with my husband Rick.