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Katherine Grainger

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For the doctor and patient-care campaigner, see Kate Granger.

Dame Katherine Grainger
DBE
Grainger with her Olympic gold medal
Personal information
Birth nameKatherine Jane Grainger[1]
NationalityBritish
Born (1975-11-12) 12 November 1975 (age 49)
Glasgow, Scotland
Alma mater
Height1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Websitekatherinegrainger.com
Chancellor of University of Glasgow
Incumbent
Assumed office
15 June 2020
Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University
In office
20 March 2015 – 15 June 2020
Vice ChancellorAlistair Fitt[3]
Preceded byShami Chakrabarti
Succeeded byPaterson Joseph
Sport
CountryUnited Kingdom
SportWomen's rowing
EventDouble Sculls
College teamEdinburgh University Boat Club
ClubSt Andrew Boat Club
Coached byPaul Thompson
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Women's rowing
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 1 4 0
World Championships 6 1 1
European Championships 0 0 1
Total 7 5 2
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Double sculls
Silver medal – second place 2000 Sydney Quadruple sculls
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Coxless pair
Silver medal – second place 2008 Beijing Quadruple sculls
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Double sculls
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2003 Milan Coxless pair
Gold medal – first place 2005 Gifu Quadruple sculls
Gold medal – first place 2006 Eton Quadruple sculls
Gold medal – first place 2007 Munich Quadruple sculls
Gold medal – first place 2010 Karapiro Double sculls
Gold medal – first place 2011 Bled Double sculls
Silver medal – second place 2009 Poznań Single scull
Bronze medal – third place 1997 Aiguebelette Eight
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Poznan Double sculls

Dame Katherine Jane Grainger DBE (born 12 November 1975) is a Scottish former rower and current Chair of UK Sport. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion for Great Britain.[4] She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020 and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.[5][6]

Grainger first won silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the woman's quadruple sculls. In Athens in 2004, she won silver in the coxless pairs. In Beijing 2008 she won her third silver, again in the quadruple sculls.

At the London Olympics 2012, Anna Watkins and Grainger broke the Olympic record as they qualified for the double sculls final, before winning the gold medal. Grainger won a silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games 2016 with Victoria Thornley, after a two-year break from the sport. Grainger won eight medals at the World Championship between 1997 and 2011.

Early life and education

[edit]

Born in Glasgow in 1975, she attended Mosshead Primary School prior to attending Bearsden Academy in East Dunbartonshire near Glasgow. Grainger's family later moved to Netherley, Aberdeenshire.[citation needed]

Grainger holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Edinburgh,[7] a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Medical Law and Medical Ethics from the University of Glasgow,[8] and a Doctor of Philosophy in law from King's College London.[2] Her doctoral research (on "the genesis and challenges of the whole life order, introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, under which those sentenced face life-long incarceration with no possibility of release"[9]) was supervised by Elaine Player and Ben Bowling.[2] In July 2013, King's made Grainger a fellow.[10] She remarked, "Without planning it both my Olympic career and my PhD have met at the same time and the culmination for both is 2012 – not by design."[11]

Career

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Rowing

[edit]

Grainger took up rowing at the University of Edinburgh in 1993 and represented Edinburgh's St Andrew Boat Club and/or Marlow Rowing Club in rowing events. She trained on the River Dee.

She first won silver at Sydney in 2000 in the woman's quadruple sculls with Guin Batten, Gillian Lindsay and Miriam Batten losing to a German team. Four years later in Athens in 2004, she won silver again when she took part in the coxless pairs with Cath Bishop, losing to Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu of Romania. She returned to the quadruple sculls in Beijing 2008, when she won her third silver with Annabel Vernon, Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton, narrowly losing to China after taking the lead for some of the race. On 3 August 2012, she won an Olympic gold medal at London in the double sculls with Anna Watkins. At the 2016 Olympics, she won a silver medal in double sculls with Vicky Thornley.

Grainger has won eight medals at the World Championships. The first of these was a bronze in 1997 in the eight, then a gold with Bishop in 2003, a gold in 2005 with the quadruple scull, with Houghton, Sarah Winckless, and Rebecca Romero, and in 2006 her quadruple scull was promoted to gold following a drugs test on the winning Russian crew. This quad had Debbie Flood instead of Romero, who had retired after the 2005 world championships.

Another gold came in 2007, again in the quadruple sculls, with Annabel Vernon replacing the injured Sarah Winckless. In 2009, having switched to the single scull after the Beijing Olympics, Grainger claimed a surprise silver at the World Championships in Poland. In 2010, Grainger teamed up with Anna Watkins in the double sculls and they embarked on an unbeaten season, culminating in victory in November in the World Championships in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand, and then defending the title in an injury disrupted season in 2011 in Bled, Slovenia.

She has won the Rowing World Cup in the quadruple sculls in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010 and the double sculls in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

On 14 March 2015, Grainger was part of the composite crew that won the Women's Eights Head of the River Race on the River Thames in London, setting a time of 18:58.6 for the 4 1⁄4-mile (6.8 km) championship course from Mortlake to Putney.[12] Her GB rowing team senior final trials results include:

  • 2015 - 2nd, Single Scull[13]
  • 2012 – 1st, Single Scull
  • 2011 – 2nd, Single Scull
  • 2004–2010 – 1st, Single Scull
  • 2001 – 1st, Double Scull
  • 1998 – 1st, Single Scull

Following retirement, Grainger also regularly raced at the HOCR[14] in Boston in a 'Director's Challenge Mixed 8' made up of a crew containing several past rowing Olympians and in 2019 they placed 1st in this event.[15]

Administration

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In April 2017, Grainger was appointed chair of UK Sport.[16] She was reappointed for a second term on 1 July 2021.[17] In March 2015, Grainger was appointed the fourth chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, at a ceremony joined by her three predecessors, Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Jon Snow and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.[18]

On 28 November 2024 it was announced that Grainger will become the new chair of the British Olympic Association (BOA) on completion of her final term as chair of UK Sport in 2025. [19] She will replace the incumbent Sir Hugh Robertson, becoming the first female chair of the BOA since its establishment in 1905.

Charity work

[edit]

Grainger is a board member for the Youth Sport Trust,[20] the British Olympic Association's Athlete Commission[21] and is a Patron for Netball Scotland,[22] Winning Scotland, the NCI[23] and Aberlour children's charity.

Grainger was previously a board member of International Inspiration (2012-2017), a charity that promoted access to sport, play, and physical exercise for low- and middle-income families with children around the world. It was the first international development legacy initiative linked to an Olympic and Paralympic Games.[24] International Inspiration's board members included British broadcaster David Davies, former UK government minister Andrew Mitchell, and Sir Sebastian Coe.[25]

In 2014 she judged the category prize 'dreams' for the Koestler Trust's annual exhibition "Catching Dreams", curated by previous Koestler award entrants. The exhibition at the Southbank Centre presented art works by prisoners, detainees and ex-offenders.

Honours and awards

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Grainger was elected President of the Edinburgh University Boat Club in 1996/97. She twice received the Edinburgh University Sports Union's Eva Bailey Cup for the university's most outstanding female athlete in 1995/96 and 1996/97[26] and was inducted to the University's Sports Hall of Fame on 29 May 2008.

She was elected as honorary president of the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association in November 2005, and a steward of Henley Royal Regatta in 2008, only the third rower to be elected while still competing.[27]

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing,[28][29] and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to sport and charity.[1][30]

Gold postbox in Aberdeen, Scotland, painted in celebration of Grainger's 2012 Olympic gold win.

In August 2012, a postbox in Aberdeen was painted gold to celebrate her 2012 Olympic gold medal.[31]

In March 2013, she became patron of the National Coastwatch Institution.[32]

In June 2017, Grainger was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen.[33]

In July 2017, it was announced that the trophy awarded to the winners of the Senior Women's competition at the Home International Regatta would be known as Dame Katherine Grainger Quaich. The first winners of the trophy were Scotland.[34]

In 2020 she was appointed as the Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, in succession to Professor Sir Kenneth Calman. She is the first woman to hold the office at Glasgow University, founded in 1451.

In January 2024 she was appointed an Honorary Colonel of the 215 (Scottish) Multirole Medical Regiment, Army Reserve.[35]

References

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  1. ^ a b "New Year's Honours list 2017" (PDF). Gov.uk. Government Digital Service. 30 December 2016. p. 9. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Grainger, Katherine Jane (2013). The 'whole life order' : its genesis, the challenges it both poses and faces, and its uncertain future. kcl.ac.uk (PhD thesis). King's College London. OCLC 1027309793. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.733314.
  3. ^ "Oxford Brookes University makes Alistair Fitt v-c". Times Higher Education (THE). 23 January 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  4. ^ "Katherine GRAINGER". Worldrowing.com. 12 November 1975. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  5. ^ "Dame Katherine Grainger to stand down as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University - Oxford Brookes University". Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  6. ^ "Olympian to become Glasgow university chancellor". BBC News. 9 March 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Alumna Katherine Grainger becomes most decorated British female Olympian | Edinburgh Law School". www.law.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Glasgow University honour for gold-winner Katherine Grainger". www.scotsman.com. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Katherine Grainger". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  10. ^ "Profile - Dame Katherine Grainger DBE". Dame Katherine Grainger DBE. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  11. ^ "London 2012: Katherine Grainger on turning silver into gold". BBC Sport. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Women's Head of the River Race". Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  13. ^ "Gregory and Sbihi are top guns in Boston". British Rowing. Archived from the original on 5 November 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  14. ^ "The Regatta". Head Of The Charles® Regatta. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  15. ^ "Directors' Challenge Mixed Eight 55th Head Of The Charles". www.regattacentral.com. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  16. ^ "Katherine Grainger: UK Sport names Olympic gold medallist as new chair". BBC Sport. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  17. ^ "Dame Katherine Grainger reappointed for a second term as UK Sport Chair". www.uksport.gov.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Welcoming our new Chancellor on an extra special day. - Oxford Brookes University". Brookes.ac.uk. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  19. ^ "Dame Katherine Grainger elected as Chair of the British Olympic Association". teamgb.com. 28 November 2024.
  20. ^ "Our leaders - Youth Sport Trust". www.youthsporttrust.org. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  21. ^ "Athletes' Commission". www.teamgb.com. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  22. ^ "Patron and President". Netball Scotland. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  23. ^ "Patrons | National Coastwatch Institution". www.nci.org.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  24. ^ "Committed to human and social development". International Inspiration. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  25. ^ "Meet the board". International Inspiration. Archived from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  26. ^ "Profile". Dame Katherine Grainger DBE. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  27. ^ "BBC SPORT | Olympics | Grainger to row on in gold hunt". BBC News. 12 December 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  28. ^ "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 24.
  29. ^ "2013 New Year's Honours" (PDF). Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  30. ^ "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N8.
  31. ^ "Grainger gold 'is worth the wait'". BBC News. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  32. ^ "New Patron For NCI". Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  33. ^ "Sign in - Google Accounts".
  34. ^ "Scotland's women awarded Dame Katherine Grainger Quaich". Scottish Rowing. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  35. ^ "No. 64327". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 February 2024. p. 3869.
Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of Glasgow
2020–present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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