Hannah Osborne (born 10 March 1994) is a New Zealand rower. A member of the national squad, she qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. In a surprise move, she was selected in the

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 ...

alongside

Brooke Donoghue Brooke Donoghue (born 6 January 1995) is a New Zealand rower. She has twice won the world championship in the double scull alongside Olivia Loe, is the incumbent world champion, and won a silver medal in this boat class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympi ...

, displacing the reigning twice world champion

Olivia Loe Olivia Loe (born 15 January 1992) is a New Zealand representative rower. She is a two-time world champion in the double scull and is the incumbent world champion winning gold at the 2019 World Rowing Championships with Brooke Donoghue. She has ...

. Osborne and Donoghue raced to a silver medal in Tokyo.

Early life

Osborne was born in 1994, the eldest of four children. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she grew up with her father; her siblings went with her mother. She was raised on a 3,000-acre sheep and beef farm run by her father and grandfather not far from

Waitomo Caves Waitomo is a rural community in the King Country region of New Zealand's North Island. There are several solutional cave systems in the area around the village, which are popular tourist attractions. Restaurants and accommodation are centred in ...

. She initially attended Piopio College in the

Waitomo District Waitomo District is a territorial authority, located in the Waikato region, at the north of the King Country area in the North Island of New Zealand. A small part of the district, the locality of Tiroa, however, lies in the Manawatū-Whanganui ...

and then switched to

Waikato Diocesan School Waikato Diocesan School for Girls is a state-integrated single-sex girls' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand. It is an Anglican girls' Boarding school for students from Year 9 to Year 13. It also has day students. History Dio was first ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Rowing career

While Osborne was at Piopio College, she took up rowing in 2009 and changed to Waikato Diocesan School as that school offered a rowing programme. For the 2011/12 rowing season, she joined the Waikato Rowing Performance Centre and was sent to the 2012

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 1 ...

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

, Bulgaria. Competing in the

quad scull A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated 4x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four people who propel the boat by sculling with two oars, or "sculls", one in each hand. Rac ...

, her team (including

Ruby Tew Ruby Tew (born 7 March 1994) is a New Zealand Olympic rower. Personal life Born in Wellington, she is the daughter of New Zealand Rugby CEO Steve Tew. She received her secondary education at Queen Margaret College. She is studying towards a B ...

and

Zoe McBride Zoe McBride (born 27 September 1995) is a former New Zealand rower. She is a double world champion in the women's lightweight single scull. She is only the second New Zealand rower to win a double national championship in both the lightweight and ...

) won a bronze medal. The following year, she raced the quad scull in the 2013 World Rowing U23 Championships in

Ottensheim Ottensheim is a municipality in the district of Urfahr-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. In July 2008 it hosted the World Rowing Championships, and it did so again in 2019. History First settlements in this area date from about 4 ...

, Austria, where her team (including

) came fifth. After that season, Osborne transferred to the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

(UVA) for study and further rowing. In October 2014, Osborne was part of the women's UVA eight that won the

Head of the Charles Regatta The Head of the Charles Regatta, also known as HOCR, is a rowing head race held on the penultimate complete weekend of October (i.e., on the Friday that falls between the 16th and the 22nd of the month, and on the Saturday and Sunday immedia ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States. After problems at UVA, she transferred to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Osborne returned to New Zealand in 2015 and competed in the quad scull in the

2016 World Rowing U23 Championships The 12th World Rowing U23 Championships was the 12th edition of the World Rowing U23 Championships and was held from 21 to 26 August 2016 at the Willem-Alexander Baan in Rotterdam, Netherlands in conjunction with the World Junior Rowing Champions ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, Netherlands, where the team came first in the B-final. From the 2016/17 season, she has competed as an elite rower, initially in

single scull A single scull (or a scull) is a rowing boat designed for a single person who propels the boat with two oars, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") are long, narrow, and broadly semi-circular in cross-section in order to minimi ...

after single sculler

Emma Twigg Emma Kimberley Twigg (born 1 March 1987) is a New Zealand rower. A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and won gold in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021. Previous Olympic appearances were in 2008 (ninth place), 2012 (fourth ...

took time off rowing following the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. Her first international race as an elite competitor was in the 2017 World Rowing Cup II in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

, Poland, where she came fifth. In the 2017 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland, she came second in the B-final. In her inaugural world championships in 2017 in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

, she came second in the B-final (eighth overall). She continued in single scull and in the following year, came second in the B-final in the 2018 World Rowing Cup II, fourth in the B-final in the 2018 World Rowing Cup III, and eighth overall in the

2018 World Rowing Championships The 2018 World Rowing Championships were the World Rowing Championships held at the regatta course in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The event was held from 9 to 16 September. Events held were men and women's open class, lightweight class, and para-rowing. ...

in Plovdiv. In October 2018, she won the Philadelphia Gold Cup Challenge (single scull) of the

Head of the Schuylkill Regatta The Thomas Eakins Head of the Schuylkill Regatta (also known as the HOSR or the HOS) is a rowing race held annually during the last weekend in October on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The HOSR is the final race in the Fall ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States. She beat

Carling Zeeman Carling Zeeman (born May 27, 1991) is a Canadian rower. She competed at several World cups, international events, along with the 2015 Pan American Games. Zeeman is a former world championships silver medallist in the women's quadruple sculls eve ...

in a photo finish by 0.06 seconds, with the reigning world champion,

Sanita Pušpure Sanita Pušpure (; born 21 December 1981) is a Latvian-born Irish professional rower. She was a back-to-back world champion in the women's single scull winning her title at the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv and defending it at the 20 ...

, in third place. Twigg had come out of retirement in September 2018, with her eyes set to once again be the nation's representative in single scull. Hannah Osborne 2018 Christmas Regatta

At the 2019

New Zealand Rowing Championships The New Zealand Rowing Championships is the club championship regatta for New Zealand. History The regatta is held alternatively between Lake Karapiro and Lake Ruataniwha in February over five days each year. The New Zealand Rowing Champions ...

Lake Ruataniwha Lake Ruataniwha is an artificial lake in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand. It was formed in 1977–1981 as part of the Waitaki hydroelectric project. It lies on the traditional boundary of the Canterbury and Otago provinces, ...

, Twigg regained the national championship in single scull, with Osborne coming eighth. Osborne took out a national title in the quad scull (alongside Twigg,

, and Samantha Voss) and the double scull (alongside Donoghue). Osborne initially became a reserve rower for the national team for the 2019 international season. At the 2019 World Rowing Cup II in Poznań, she was called up for the women's four and the team came third in the B-final. In the

2019 World Rowing Championships The 2019 World Rowing Championships were held in Ottensheim, Austria from 25 August to 1 September 2019. Apart from Ottensheim, the right to host the championships was contested by Hamburg in Germany, Račice in the Czech Republic, and Varese ...

in Ottensheim, she was called up for a newly formed quad scull and the team gained fifth place in its second event this team was racing in. This fifth place gained New Zealand a quota spot in quad scull for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, there was no international rowing during 2020. At the New Zealand Rowing announcement of the female elite team in February 2021, Osborne was part of the quad scull. When the crew selections for Tokyo were made in June 2021, it came as a surprise that Osborne had displaced Olivia Loe, joining Donoghue in the double scull. The Donoghue/Loe duo had been twice world champions in this discipline2017 and 2019. Loe was instead selected to the quad scull. ''

Stuff Stuff, stuffed, and stuffing may refer to: *Physical matter *General, unspecific things, or entities Arts, media, and entertainment Books *''Stuff'' (1997), a novel by Joseph Connolly (author), Joseph Connolly *''Stuff'' (2005), a book by Jere ...

''s rowing commentator Ian Anderson considered the women's double scull "to be among NZ's leading medal contenders in Tokyo". Osborne and Donoghue won their heat, placed second in the semi-final and took the silver medal in the Olympic final behind Romania.

References

External links

*
Virginia Cavaliers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Hannah 1994 births Living people New Zealand female rowers People educated at Waikato Diocesan School Sportspeople from Waikato Olympic rowers for New Zealand Rowers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in rowing Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand Virginia Cavaliers women's rowers