Josh West

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For The Home and Away character of the same name see Josh West (Home and Away).

Joshua West (born 25 March 1977 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States) is a British rower who attended Yale for his undergraduate degree. At Yale, he learned to row under Freshman Coach Justin Moore and Varsity Coach Dave Vogel. He participated in the 4-mile Varsity Eights version of the Harvard-Yale Boat Race his senior year (1998) but lost to Harvard. As an undergraduate he was a member of the literary society, St. Anthony Hall.

In 1999, Josh attended Cambridge University for graduate school and simultaneously earned a spot in the Blue Boat for The Boat Race against Oxford University. Earning a seat in Cambridge's Blue Boat every year through 2002, Josh and the "Light Blues" bested the "Dark Blues" twice in those four years (1999 & 2001). In 2000, Josh lined up against former Yale teammates Alexander Reid and Eirik Lilledahl, who were the stern pair of the victorious Oxford crew. At 6 ft 9.5 in, Josh is the tallest recorded oarsmen to participate in The Boat Race.

Building on his Cambridge successes, Josh eventually became a member of the British National Rowing Team and won two silver medals (2002 & 2003) with the British Four and one bronze medal (2007) with the British Eight at the World Rowing Championships. He is training to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.^[1]