Eve Macfarlane (born 27 September 1992) is a New Zealand

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, 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 ...

. Described as a "natural rower", she went to the 2009

World Rowing Junior Championships The World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 December of the year in which he reaches the age of ...

within a few months of having taken up rowing and won a silver medal. She represented New Zealand at the 2012 Summer Olympics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as the country's youngest Olympian at those games. She was the 2015 world champion in the women's

double scull A double scull is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") are long, narrow, and broadly ...

s with Zoe Stevenson. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, they came fourth in the semi-finals and thus missed the A final.

Junior rowing

Macfarlane was born in 1992 and grew up in

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...

, just north of Cheviot. She was educated at

Rangi Ruru Girls' School Rangi Ruru Girls' School is a New Zealand private girls' day and boarding secondary school located in Merivale, an inner suburb of Christchurch. The school is affiliated to the Presbyterian Church, and serves approximately girls from Years ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

where she was into many sports, including "netball, basketball, athletics, volleyball, touch, cross-country running". She excelled at any sport she tried and Rex Farrelly, Rangi Ruru's long-term rowing coach, asked her if she wanted to try rowing, which she started in 2009. Farrelly says that "there's very few natural rowers. Eve was one." Gary Hay, one of the other rowing coaches at Rangi Ruru, describes her as a natural rower: Macfarlane competed for Rangi Ruru in the 2009 and 2010

Maadi Cup The Maadi Cup is the prize for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Boys' Under 18 Rowing Eights. More colloquially, it is the name given to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta, at which the Maadi Cup is raced. The regatta is the large ...

national secondary school rowing championships, and was a member of the crews that won the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup (girls under-18 eights) and Dawn Cup (girls under-18 coxed fours) for the school in both years. Her 2009 Maadi Cup appearance guaranteed her a place in the junior women's eight that went to the

in August 2009 in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France; within months of having taken up rowing, she won a silver medal at a World Rowing Junior Championship. Zoe Stevenson and

Francie Turner Frances "Francie" Turner (born 6 April 1992) is a New Zealand coxswain. She competed at the Rio Olympics with the New Zealand women's eight. Private life Turner was born in Christchurch in 1992 and grew up on a dairy farm near Southbridge in C ...

were also in the boat. Macfarlane changed to a women's four and with Beatrix Heaphy-Hall, Jennifer Storey, and

Grace Prendergast Grace Elizabeth Prendergast (born 30 June 1992) is a former New Zealand sweep rower. She is a 15-time national champion in the premier category, an Olympic champion, a five-time world champion and the current (2022) world champion in the coxle ...

, she won gold at the 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships in Račice, Czech Republic. At the

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics ( ta, 2010 கோடைக்கால இளையோர் ஒலிம்பிக் விளையாட்டுக்கள் ms, Sukan Olimpik Belia Musim Panas 2010), officially known as the I Summer ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, she won the B Final with Beatrix Heaphy-Hall in the junior women's pair.

Elite rowing

She changed to the elite class in 2011, having skipped the under 23 class, and came under the guidance of national coach

Dick Tonks Richard William Tonks (born 21 February 1951) is a former national New Zealand rowing coach and a former rower who won a silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Through his coaching career he has coached crews to a total of 25 World ...

. Tonks changed her from a sweep rower to a

sculler Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving them through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving one oar over the stern. A long, narrow boat with sliding seats, rigged with two oars per rower may be referred to as a scull, i ...

and placed her in a women's quadruple scull. The four, which included

Sarah Gray Sarah Gray (born 28 October 1990, Cambridge, New Zealand) is a New Zealand rower. Under national coach Dick Tonks, Gray was placed in a women's quadruple scull with Fiona Bourke, Eve MacFarlane, and Louise Trappitt. They surprised themselve ...

Fiona Bourke Fiona Bourke (born 16 October 1988, Dannevirke) is a New Zealand rower. She won the 2014 World Championship in the women's double sculls with Zoe Stevenson, having won the silver medal in the same team the year before. At the 2012 Summer Olymp ...

and Louise Trappitt, surprised themselves by winning bronze at the regattas in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

(Germany) and Lucerne (Switzerland). They maintained their form and won a bronze at the 2011 World Rowing Championships at Lake Bled in

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

, Slovenia. In 2012, Macfarlane competed with the women's quad at regattas in Lucerne (Switzerland; fourth place) and Munich (Germany; fifth place). The quad then went to the 2012 Summer Olympics in

with a strong expectation for a medal when Trappitt "caught a crab" and snapped an oar at the 1500 m mark in the repechage. This cost the team their place in the final (they would have had to be within the first four but came last in the repechage), and they subsequently came first in the B final. Macfarlane was New Zealand's youngest representative in London. In 2013, Macfarlane was part of the women's eight. At regattas in Sydney (Australia) and Lucerne (Switzerland), they came fifth and sixth, respectively. At the

2013 World Rowing Championships The 2013 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 25 August to 1 September 2013 at Tangeum Lake, Chungju in South Korea. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowin ...

held at

Tangeum Lake Tangeum Lake is an artificial lake at Chungju in South Korea.Tourist Route: Tang ...

in Chungju, South Korea, the eight came first in the B final. MacFarlane did not race in 2014. At regattas in

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

(Italy) and Lucerne (Switzerland) in 2015, she competed in the

s with Zoe Stevenson, winning gold in both finals. The pair went to the

2015 World Rowing Championships The 2015 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 2015 at Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette in France. Description The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the ...

held at

Lac d'Aiguebelette Lac d'Aiguebelette is a natural lake in the commune of Aiguebelette-le-Lac, within the department of Savoie, France. Geography Description With a surface area of 5.45 km2 and a depth of 71 meters it is one of the largest natural lakes of F ...

in Aiguebelette, France, and again won gold. Stevenson and MacFarlane qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but were beaten in the semi-finals by the US by 5/100 into fourth place, thus missing the A final. In November 2016, both MacFarlane and Stevenson announced that they would take the 2017 rowing season off.

Private life

Macfarlane lives in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

to be close to

Lake Karapiro Lake Karapiro () is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River at Karapiro, south-east of Cambridge in New Zealand's North Island. The lake was formed in 1947 by the damming of the Waikato River to store water for the 96-megawatt Karapir ...

for her rowing training. She holds a Diploma in Art and Creativity with honours, obtained through extramural study at the Learning Connexion in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacFarlane, Eve New Zealand female rowers 1992 births Living people Olympic rowers for New Zealand Rowers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics People educated at Rangi Ruru Girls' School World Rowing Championships medalists for New Zealand 21st-century New Zealand painters Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2020 Summer Olympics