George Bridgewater

George Spencer Bridgewater MNZM (born 18 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rower who competed in the pair at international level with Nathan Twaddle. The pair began representing New Zealand together in 2004 and won bronze medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Bridgewater went to his third Summer Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

George Bridgewater
MNZM
Bridgewater in 2012
Personal information
Birth nameGeorge Spencer Bridgewater
Born (1983-01-18) 18 January 1983
Wellington, New Zealand
Height2.00 m (6 ft 7 in)
Weight97 kg (214 lb)
Medal record
Men's rowing
Representing  New Zealand
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place2008 BeijingCoxless pair
World Rowing Championships
Gold medal – first place2005 GifuCoxless pair
Silver medal – second place2006 EtonCoxless pair
Silver medal – second place2007 MunichCoxless pair

Rowing career

Bridgewater was born in 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand.[1] He rowed for the Avon club based in Christchurch, and won several titles at New Zealand Rowing Championships, beginning in 2002.

Bridgewater and Twaddle finished fourth in the pairs final at the Athens Olympics. They won a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, in 2005, in the Magic 45 minutes where four New Zealand crews won gold medals. The pair finished second in the 2006 and 2007 World Rowing Championships.

In 2008, following the Beijing Olympics, Bridgewater matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was part of the winning crew in the 155th University Boat Race on 29 March 2009, rowing at seven. While at Oxford, Bridgewater stroked the Oriel College 1st Eight in Summer Eights, bumping Balliol College to finish 3rd on the river.

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Bridgewater was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to rowing.[2] Later that year he graduated from the University of Oxford Saïd Business School with an MBA. He worked for Morgan Stanley in Singapore,[3] but returned to New Zealand in June 2014 to prepare for the 2016 Olympics.[1][4] He competed in the quadruple sculls at Rio with Nathan Flannery, John Storey, and Jade Uru, and the team came tenth.[5]

Private life

Bridgewater has two children.[4]

References
  1. "George Bridgewater". New Zealand Olympic Committee. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  2. "New Year honours list 2009". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  3. "Summer pix competition". Dominion Post. 11 January 2013. p. 4.
  4. Weaser, Laura (23 June 2015). "George Bridgewater's going for gold". New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
  5. "(M4x) Men's Quadruple Sculls - Final". International Rowing Federation. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
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