Pete Reed: Olympic Rower

Pete Reed won three Olympic gold medals for Great Britain: the men’s coxless four in 2008 and 2012, and the men’s eight in 2016. He has since spoken publicly about a serious health crisis.

Background

Reed was born in Seattle in 1981, and his family moved to England months later. He joined the Royal Navy in 1999 and served as an officer during his rowing career, leaving as a lieutenant commander in 2022.

The Olympic golds

• Beijing 2008: coxless four, with Andy Triggs Hodge, Tom James and Steve Williams
• London 2012: coxless four, with Triggs Hodge, Alex Gregory and Tom James
• Rio 2016: men’s eight, with Triggs Hodge, Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Matt Gotrel, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill

The four, where he won his first two golds, is a hard boat to win in. It needs four rowers who can move together at a high rate, with no cox to steer, so the crew steers with a foot-operated rudder. Our guide to how Olympic rowers steer explains how.

The coxless four in more detail

In a coxless four, each rower holds one oar, two on each side. One crew member, usually in the bow seat, steers by swivelling their foot, which is connected to the rudder by a cable. That rower has to keep an eye on the lane while also rowing at full power, and the rest of the crew relies on them to keep the boat on a straight line.

The boat’s speed comes from rhythm. All four rowers must catch the water at the same time, apply power together and release together, otherwise the boat rocks and slows. Small timing errors of a few hundredths of a second are enough to disturb the run. At elite level, crews spend years rowing together to perfect this, which is why selectors are often reluctant to change a successful line-up.

Racing at three Games

The 2008 Games were held at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing, the 2012 regatta was at Eton Dorney, and the 2016 regatta was on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Rio de Janeiro.

Winning at three consecutive Games means staying at the top for two full cycles, and Reed did it in two different boats. Injuries, illness and selection changes can disrupt a crew at any time. It also means maintaining the discipline to train hard when the previous result has already been banked.

Health challenges

In October 2019, the year after he retired from international rowing, Reed announced that a spinal stroke had left him paralysed from the chest down.

If you want to learn more about stroke, the NHS and the Stroke Association are good places to start. This is general information, not medical advice.

Honours

Reed was appointed MBE in the 2009 New Year Honours and OBE in the 2017 New Year Honours.

What his career shows

• Crews that stay together over years often outperform loose line-ups of individually stronger rowers. For a crew built on a family bond, read about Olympic rowing brothers Greg and Jonny Searle.
• Sweep boats without a cox ask a lot of communication and shared rhythm.
• Training volume builds a base. Our piece on how to train like an Olympic rower covers the principle.

Related reading

See British Olympic rowers and our overview of Olympic rowing at London 2012. For more, visit the Olympic rowing hub.