Alan Campbell

Rio 2016 Olympiad: 2013 – 2016

After winning the GB Rowing Team Trials for a ninth time, Alan was once again selected in the men’s single scull for the 2016 season. He had to settle for ninth place at the European Championships in Brandenburg but improved to fifth at the World Cup in Lucerne before returning to the podium with a fine performance at the Poznan World Cup, winning bronze.

At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Alan won his heat and was runner-up in his quarter-final but had to settle for fourth place in his semi-final. Vertigo brought on by a head cold meant Alan was unable to race in the B final, meaning he finished 12th overall.

The 2015 season saw Alan return from a year of illness and injury to qualify the single scull for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with an eighth-placed finish at the 2015 World Championships in Aiguebelette.

While he was disappointed not to make the A final on that occasion, he had demonstrated he was back to racing form during the World Cup series. He was fifth in Varese and then produced a sprint to the line to take bronze in Lucerne.

Alan had started the Olympiad with a silver medal at the Eton Dorney World Cup and was then sixth in Lucerne before finishing just outside the medals at the 2013 World Championships in Chungju.

The following year started with a sixth-placed finish at the European Championships in Belgrade. However, he missed out on the A final for the first time in his single scull career at the World Cup in Lucerne, placing 14th, and his season was cut short by illness.

London 2012 Olympiad: 2009 – 2012

Alan, who battled back from knee surgery to finish a spirited fifth at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, enjoyed a healthy rivalry with New Zealand’s Mahe Drysdale and Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic throughout the London Olympiad.

He started it in style, winning World Cup gold in Banyoles and silver in Munich, and was one of two rowers to beat the former World’s Best Time as he finished runner-up to Drysdale at the 2009 World Championships in Poznan.

The 2010 season saw Alan win World Cup silver in both Bled and Lucerne before winning bronze behind Synek and Drysdale at the World Championships in New Zealand.

After finishing fifth at the first World Cup of 2011 in Munich, Alan was sidelined by illness but returned to win another bronze medal at the World Championships in Bled.

Alan started the 2012 Olympic season with silver in Belgrade and, after just missing the podium in Lucerne, took bronze in Munich. A dramatic final at London 2012 saw him lie fourth behind Drysdale, Synek and Sweden’s Lassi Karonen with just 500m to go but, lifted by the home crowd, he powered through to secure bronze.

Alan started rowing at school, Coleraine Academical Institution for Boys, in his hometown in Northern Ireland and was then ‘found’ by Tideway Scullers School and encouraged to aim high through their development programme.

He may be an Olympic medalist but Alan says his other sporting claim to fame is being one-and-a-half legs of the 2002 Wiltshire three-legged pub crawl winning team.  His ideal dinner companions would be his wife and daughter plus Heston Blumenthal to do the cooking, although he is also partial to bucket chicken.

Alan is a big Rocky IV fan but, if he could be any other sportsperson for the day, would swap places with Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury.

Alan is Lottery funded through UK Sport.