Heather Stanning

Heather Stanning MBE

Personal information
Full name	Heather Mary Stanning
Nationality	British
Born	(1985-01-26) 26 January 1985 Yeovil, Somerset, England[1]
Residence	Lossiemouth
Height	181 cm (5.94 ft) (2012)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb; 11 st 11 lb) – 165 Lbs (2012)
Sport
Country	United Kingdom
Sport	Rowing
Event(s)	Women's coxless pair
Turned pro	2009
Partner	Helen Glover
Medal record Women's Rowing Competitor for  Great Britain Olympics Gold 2012 London W2- World Championships Silver 2010 Lake Karapiro W2- Silver 2011 Lake Bled W2- Gold 2014 Amsterdam W2− World Rowing Cup Gold 2011 Munich W2- Gold 2011 Lucerne W2- Gold 2012 Belgrade W2- Gold 2012 Lucerne W2- Gold 2012 Munich W2- Gold 201.4 million d'Aiguebelette W2- Gold 2014 Lucerne W2-

Heather Mary Stanning MBE (born 26 January 1985) is a British professional rower, a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team, and Royal Artillery officer. As of August 2014 she is both the world and Olympic record holder, plus the reigning Olympic, World and World Cup champion in the women's coxless pairs.

She is a Captain in the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery but has been given dispensation from the army to pursue an Olympic career with the British team at both the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Paired with Helen Glover in 2012 she won an Olympic gold medal, the first for their country of the 2012 Games and the first ever British Olympic gold medal in women's rowing. She set the world record time in partnership with Helen Glover at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.

Early life

Stanning was born in Yeovil, Somerset, England,^[2] her parents Timothy and Mary were Royal Navy officers.^[3][4] She was educated at Gordonstoun, Scotland, where she was appointed head girl in her final year.^[5] Her school yearbook predicted that she would be the first one to win an Olympic gold medal.^[6]

Whilst in sixth form she won a British Army scholarship^[3] and went on to study sports technology at the University of Bath, England,^[7] she started rowing in 2006 under the Team GB Start Programme.^[7] She graduated from University in 2007 before going on to Sandhurst alongside her brother, Martin, who is now in the Black Watch.^[4] Another brother, Alistair, is a Navy doctor.^[5]

Career

Stanning was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Artillery in August 2008,^[7] based at Larkhill Garrison on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. She holds the rank of Captain and serves in 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery.^[8][9]

2006–2009

In 2006 Stanning started rowing and was selected for Team GB "Start" programme where she was coached by Paul Stannard. In 2007 she partnered Olivia Whitlam to win the women's pair competition at the World Rowing U23 Championships. In 2008 she won the Remenham Challenge Cup for women's eights at the Henley Royal Regatta.^[9] In 2009 she tried out for TeamGB and joined the crew of the women's eight with Victoria Bryant, Ruth Walczak, Victoria Meyer-Laker, Monica Relph, Jaqueline Round, Leonora Kennedy, Rachael Jefferies and Zoe de Toledo. They finished seventh at the European Rowing Championships held in Brest, Belarus.^[10][4]

2010

Stanning was given leave from the army in 2010 to train for Olympic competition and was paired with Helen Glover in the women's coxless pairs.^[11][12] At the 2010 World Rowing Cup they finished 9th in Bled and 5th in Munich, but were unable to race at Lucerne due to Glover's illness.

In July Glover and Stanning started to be coached by Robin Williams. They were ranked 16th and 17th in their event, but they improved so rapidly that at the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro in New Zealand in November they won a silver medal behind Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown of New Zealand.^[13][14]

2011

In 2011 Glover and Stanning won the coxless pair event at the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials at Eton-Dorney with a time of 7 minutes 15 seconds. They went on to win both the Munich and Lucerne World Rowing Cup regattas, beating the reigning world champions Haigh and Scown of New Zealand. Great Britain did not enter round 2 of the World Cup in Hamburg due to an E. coli outbreak in the area.^[15]

Glover and Stanning finished second in the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, 0.1 seconds behind the winning New Zealand crew of Haigh and Scown.^[13] Their coach Robin Williams described it as a gold medal performance without getting the gold medal.^[14]

2012

In 2012 Glover and Stanning completed a clean sweep of all three events in the women's coxless pair of the World Rowing Cup. Winning gold at Belgrade Sava, Serbia; Lucerne Rotsee, Switzerland; and Munich Oberschleissheim, Germany.^[10][16]

On 1 August 2012 Glover and Stanning won the gold medal in the women's coxless pairs at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.^[17][18] This was Team GB's first gold medal of London 2012, and a first ever Olympic gold medal for British women's rowing.^[17][18] As with other gold medal winners, Royal Mail issued a commemorative stamp showing their celebrations, plus painting a post box gold in her home town of Lossiemouth to commemorate the event.^[19][18][20] After the race, the BBC played a message to Stanning from her regiment, which was deployed in Afghanistan.^[11]

In September 2012 Stanning reported to Larkhill garrison and resumed her British Army career. She was posted to Helmand Province in Afghanistan where she completed her tour of duty in the summer of 2013, and returned to training in December.^[7][5][21]

2014

On 17 March 2014 Stanning 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 record time of 17:42.2 for the 4 1⁄4-mile (6.8 km) Championship Course from Mortlake to Putney. The crew comprised Heather Stanning – Army RC; Beth Rodford – Gloucester RC; Zoe Lee – Imperial College BC; Jessica Eddie – London RC; Helen Glover – Minerva Bath Rowing Club; Olivia Carnegie-Brown – Oxford Brookes University BC; Tina Stiller – Tees RC; Caragh McMurtry – Reading University BC; cox Phelan Hill – Leander Club.^[22]

On 19 April 2014 Helen Glover and Stanning, coached by Paul Thompson, won the women's pair at the British rowing trials at Caversham, they took seven minutes 56.08 seconds and finished 1.14 seconds ahead of Polly Swann and Jessica Eddie. Stanning said "It was brilliant to be back racing with Helen. It feels like old times, but at the same time it's so refreshing because we've both learnt new things while we've been apart."^[23][24] In May Stanning's training schedule was reduced in intensity, causing her to be replaced in the European Championships by Polly Swann.^[25]

Teamed with Helen Glover in the women's coxless pair, Stanning won gold at the second and third rounds of the World Rowing Cup at Lac d'Aiguebelette in France in June and Lucerne Rotsee on 13 July, which also clinched the overall title despite TeamGB not entering the first event in Australia in March. At Aiguebelette they qualified directly for the final which they completed in 7 minutes 6.9 seconds, finishing two seconds ahead of the Americans Grace Luczak and Caroline Lind. At Lucerne they again qualified directly for the final which, despite Glover's illness, they completed in 7 minutes 12.99 seconds, finishing a length ahead of the New Zealand 2 crew of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]}

On 30 September Stanning, partnered by Helen Glover, retained her world title at the 2014 World Rowing Championships held at the Bosbaan, Amsterdam. They won both their heat and the semi-final and set a new world record time of 6:50.61 in the final, breaking the 2002 time by three seconds. They defeated the silver medallists, Megan Kalmoe and Kerry Simmonds of the United States, by over two seconds. Glover said: "I knew we were ready but there was so much expectation, so winning is definitely a relief."^[32][33][34]

At the British Rowing Championships on 18–19 October at Holme Pierrepont (Nottingham), Stanning was part of the composite crew that won gold in both the women's fours sweep event and the quad sculls. Racing under the acronym LIMA, the crew comprised: Jessica Eddie – London RC; Zoe Lee – Imperial College BC; Helen Glover – Minerva-Bath RC; and Heather Stanning – Army RC.^[35][36]

2015

On 14 March 2015 Stanning 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. The crew comprised: Heather Stanning – Army RC; Helen Glover – Minerva-Bath RC; Zoe Lee – Imperial College BC; Katherine Grainger – Marlow RC; Melanie Wilson; Caragh McMurtry – Southampton Coalporters ARC; Olivia Carnegie-Brown – Oxford Brookes University BC; Jessica Eddie – London RC; cox Phelan Hill – Leander Club.^[37]

On 19 April 2015 Helen Glover and Stanning won the women's pair at the British rowing trials at Caversham, they took seven minutes 36.09 seconds and finished ten seconds ahead of Jessica Eddie and Louisa Reeve, followed by Katie Greves & Zoe Lee. Glover said: We not only have great respect for each other as athletes but we are great friends on and off the water. I can genuinely say I want to win these races as much for Heather as for myself. We know how much we put into every session – it isn’t just our day job, it’s our passion.^[38]

Honours

Stanning was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing.^[39][40]

See also

• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• Heather Stanning at the International Rowing Federation

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