Triggs Hodge is Rowing’s Olympic Athlete of the Year
TWICE OLYMPIC CHAMPION and reigning men’s eight World Champion Andrew Triggs Hodge MBE has been named as rowing’s “Olympic Athlete of the Year” for 2013.
Triggs Hodge, 34, was presented with the British Olympic Association trophy by Dame Di Ellis, BOA Life Vice President, at tonight’s GB Rowing Teams’annual dinner at Twickenham.
The Yorkshireman, who learned to row whilst at Staffordshire University because he wanted to improve his fitness, has been at the top of the GB Rowing Team men’s squad for almost a decade.
He won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in the men’s four with Pete Reed, Tom James and Steve Williams and repeated that feat in 2012 in the same boat class with Reed, James and Alex Gregory.
Triggs Hodge currently heads the World Rowing Top 10 list for male rowers.
In 2013 Triggs Hodge provided the rhythm at stroke for a men’s eight campaign which saw them win gold at Sydney and Eton-Dorney before switching his power to the engine room of the boat which went on to win Britain’s historic first men’s eight World title in Chungju, Korea, in early September.
‘Andy is a powerful winner of this trophy from a strong GB Rowing Team men’s squad. Not only does he give his all in training and competition but he often voices the key issues in our sport with the same passion and commitment”, said Sir David Tanner CBE of Triggs Hodge.
The Oxford resident was also an Olympian in 2004 where he raced in the men’s eight which took ninth place.
In the 2012 Olympic final, Triggs Hodge and his crew went to the line having been beaten by Australia a month before in Lucerne at the final world cup of the season.
Theirs was a seminal performance in front of an ecstatic and packed home crowd. Despite pressure from the Australians, the GB crew led their final from the start before closing the race out strongly to win gold.
After the race Triggs Hodge said: “We have just executed a masterpiece. It took us four years to perfect that”.
“Everyone has contributed to our success. Every single person here [at Eton Dorney] as well as our families, our friends, our support teams”.
Earlier this year Triggs Hodge and his surgeon wife Eeke, herself a former rower with the Dutch squad, were delighted at the safe arrival of their first child – a baby boy called Sebastian.
“We’ve always enjoyed challenging ourselves, but this eclipses everything we’ve done”, said Triggs Hodge at the time. “Sebastian is a helpless bundle of love, but I’ve never felt this weight of responsibility, or shared in this much joy.
“Both Eeke and I are enjoying all the joy he brings, even some of the sleepless nights. We look forward to everything he brings”.
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THE SEASON AHEAD
GB Rowing Team Diary Dates for 2013/2014:
November
30
The Fours’ Head, London
December
14
2nd Winter Assessment Trials (Boston, Lincs) – full squad
Para-rowing 2nd Ergo Assessment, Caversham
March
1-2
Para-rowing 3rd Assessment, Caversham
15
Women’s Head of the River, London
29
Men’s Head of the River, London
April
5
GB Rowing Team Para-Rowing Trials, Caversham
19-20
GB Rowing Team Senior Team Trials – Caversham
May
28 – 1 June
European Championships, Belgrade
June
20-22
World Cup II, Aiguebelette, France (includes para-rowing)
July
2-6
Henley Royal Regatta – TBC
12-13
World Cup III, Lucerne, Switzerland
23-27
World U23 Championships, Varese, Italy
August
6-10
World Junior Championships, Hamburg, Germany
16-28
World Youth Olympic Games, Nanjing, China
24 – 31
World Championships, Amsterdam
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