Rebecca Scown (born 10 August 1983) is a professional

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 ...

from New Zealand. Together with

Juliette Haigh Juliette Anne Haigh (born 4 August 1982), also known by her married name Juliette Drysdale but better known by her maiden name, is a retired professional Rowing (sport), rower. Haigh was born in 1982 in Auckland, New Zealand. Her parents are Pe ...

, she won the bronze medal in the women's coxless pair at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Previously they had won gold in the women's pair at the

World Rowing Cup The World Rowing Cup is an international rowing competition organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It began in 1997 and comprises three regattas (apart from in 2001 when there were four) held throughout early summer. In each even ...

regatta in Lucerne, 2010 and at the

2010 World Rowing Championships The 2010 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 31 October to 7 November 2010 on Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, New Zealand. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organised by FISA (the International Rowi ...

at Lake Karapiro and the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled. After winning a bronze medal with the New Zealand women's eight at the

2017 World Rowing Championships The 2017 World Rowing Championships were the 47th edition of the World Rowing Championships that were held from 24 September to 1 October 2017 in Sarasota, Florida. Host selection During 2013, Plovdiv and Sarasota, Florida both applied to hos ...

, she is having a break from rowing in the 2017/18 season.

Personal life

Scown was born in

Hāwera Hāwera is the second-largest centre in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight. The origins of the town lie in a government military base that was established i ...

in 1983.

Sonia Waddell Sonia Waddell (née Scown; born 19 February 1973) is a New Zealand athlete. She represented her country at a World Junior Championship in hurdles before becoming a rower, in which sport she was twice an Olympic competitor and where she won silve ...

(née Scown), a fellow competitive rower, is her cousin. Her uncle

Alistair Scown Alistair Ian Scown (born 21 October 1948) was a New Zealand rugby union player. He has five caps as an All Black. All his test appearances were in 1972. Scown is known for being a player involved in what has been described as "the greatest try of ...

(Waddell's father) is a former

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

. She completed her schooling at

Wanganui Collegiate School Whanganui Collegiate School (formerly Wanganui Collegiate School; see here) is a state-integrated, coeducational, day and boarding, secondary school in Whanganui, Manawatū-Whanganui region, New Zealand. The school is affiliated to the Anglican c ...

. She participated in a number of extra-curricular activities during her schooling years, most notably

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

which she took up during her final years at

. Her teachers saw potential in her and allowed Scown to participate in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta for Collegiate. Scown was accepted to the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

to study both

Commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

and

Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and completed her

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

before moving north to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a 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. Cambridge bec ...

in the

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

to begin her career as a full-time

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

. Since the completion of her

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

, Rebecca has also achieved a

postgraduate diploma A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...

Sport Management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiz ...

Rowing career

During her summer holidays, Scown would go home to

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

and compete in the

Rowing New Zealand 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 ...

Summer season. In 2005, which was her final year at University, she received a

trial and was named a member of the New Zealand Under-23 Women's

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 ...

with fellow members Bess Halley, Darnelle Timbs, and Clementine Marshall. Scown and her crew mates competed at the Under-23 World Championships in Amsterdam and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

. In 2006, Scown rowed for the

Union Boat Club The Union Boat Club (also known as UBC), founded in 1851, is an athletic club in Boston. It is the longest continuously operating rowing club in Boston. Located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood along the Charles River, the Club has grown beyond row ...

and the Central Regional Performance Centre, gaining a number of places at the

Championships on

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 ...

. She was then named as a member of the New Zealand Women's Rowing Eight to compete at the 2006 World Rowing Championships in Eton, England. The crew came in 7th. A year later, Scown competed at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany as part of the New Zealand Women's Rowing Eight. However, once again, Scown and her crew returned home empty-handed as they came in 9th. Scown was later named as the stroke of the New Zealand Women's Eight which was sent to the Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Qualification 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, however, her crew was unsuccessful in their bid to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. 2009 provided the opportunity for her to secure a seat in the New Zealand Women's Pair. Scown was named in the boat with fellow eight-rower Emma Feathery and the pair competed at two World Rowing Cup events, winning both world cups and becoming World Rowing Cup leaders for their event in 2009. They went on to compete in the 2009 World Rowing Championships in

, Poland, and found themselves in one of the closest races of the regatta; there was only 1 second within the first three crews in the race and Scown and Feathery came in third, winning the

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

. In 2010, Juliette Haigh who was in the New Zealand Women's Pair from 2004 to 2008 returned to the event and partnered with Scown in the boat. The pair competed at two World Rowing Cup events and convincingly won both finals and the World Rowing Cup leadership jerseys, making them favourites for the

to be held at

in November 2010. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Rowing Championships with the women's eight, qualifying the boat for the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

. She also competed in the

coxless pair A coxless pair is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars. The crew consists of a pair of rowers, each having one oar, one on the stroke side (rower's right h ...

in Rio and with Genevieve Behrent won silver, beaten by the reigning Olympic champions

Heather Stanning Heather Mary Stanning OBE (born 26 January 1985) is a retired British professional rower, a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team, and Royal Artillery officer. Ranked number 1 female rower in the world in 2016, she is a double Olympic champi ...

and Helen Glover of Great Britain. Behrent announced in November 2016 that she would take a break in 2017, hence Scown will need a new rowing partner. Scown rowed with the women's eight in 2017 and won a bronze medal at the

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 ...

. Scown will take the 2017/18 rowing season off, and will review her involvement in rowing during that time.

References

External links

Video interview
with Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh {{DEFAULTSORT:Scown, Rebecca Living people New Zealand female rowers 1983 births University of Otago alumni Sportspeople from Hāwera Rowers from Whanganui Rowers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rowers for New Zealand Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand Olympic bronze medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in rowing Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for New Zealand People educated at Whanganui Collegiate School Massey University alumni 21st-century New Zealand women