Most of our rowers start from the level of complete novice during the Third Year, with some coming to us later in their school life and going on to be very successful. Rowing is a ‘late development’ sport meaning that it is very possible to come to rowing from another sport and achieve success. It is not unusual for a student to start from complete novice and go on to be a national champion and represent Great Britain within their time at KGS. In July 2022, a KGSBC athlete won a bronze medal representing Great Britain at the U19 World Championships. This athlete had been rowing for just three years.
Underpinning our success is a commitment to developing superb student-athletes who achieve on the water and in the classroom. We introduce over 100 students to the sport every year and over 80 KGS students have represented Great Britain. We are one of the only schools in the UK to have produced both a male and female Olympic champion in James Cracknell (2000 and 2004) and Sophie Hosking (2012).
In the last four years, five students won rowing scholarships to American colleges. One of these students had been rowing for just 7 months when she was awarded her place at UCLA.
We train at the RC Sherriff Boathouse on the Thames in Thames Ditton. We compete from J14 to J18 at local regattas and the major national regattas - National Schools Regatta, Henley Royal Regatta, Henley Women’s Regatta and the British Championships. At the 2021 British Championship,s we won the WJ16 quad in a record time. We also hold training camps to Pangbourne, Berkshire and Banyoles, Spain.
