Brianna Stubbs

Rio 2016 Olympiad: 2013 – 2016

After finishing fifth at the 2016 GB Rowing Team Trials, Brianna was selected alongside Ellie Piggott in the lightweight women’s double scull for the World Cup in Lucerne, placing ninth overall. Brianna and Ellie then raced in the lightweight women’s quadruple alongside Emily Craig and Imogen Walsh at the 2016 World Championships in Rotterdam. After winning their race for lanes, the GB quartet showed their quality once again in the final to win gold in impressive style.

Brianna had also finished 2015 on a high by winning lightweight women’s quadruple scull silver at the World Championships in Aiguebelette with Ellie, Emily and Ruth Walczak. The same quartet had won gold at the Holland Beker regatta earlier in the season.

Brianna started the Olympiad in fine style as she and Ellie won a superb gold medal in the lightweight double at the 2013 World U23 Championships in Linz. They had earlier made their senior debuts together at the World Cup in Eton Dorney, finishing fourth.

The 2014 season saw Brianna and Ellie join Charlotte Taylor and Ruth Walczak in the lightweight quad, finishing eighth in the open-weight category at the World Cup in Lucerne and sixth at the World Championships in Amsterdam.

London 2012 Olympiad: 2009 – 2012

Brianna gained her first GB vest shortly before her 16th birthday after being awarded a scholarship to Canford School, which allowed her to fit her training in around her studies more effectively. This culminated in winning a silver medal at the 2009 World Junior Championships in the women’s four during her final year at school.

Brianna – who is reading Medicine at Oxford University and stroked the winning Women’s Blue Boat for two successive years – was part of the women’s eight that finished fifth at the 2011 World U23 Championships in Amsterdam. She also moved to Wallingford RC that year, improved her sculling and made the change to the lightweight class.

Rowing is in Brianna’s blood – her father took part in the first Atlantic Rowing Race in 1997 and in 2004 she became the youngest person to row across the English channel, aged just 12.

She is currently halfway through studying for a DPhil in Biochemical Physiology at Oxford University and plans to pursue a career as a doctor in the future.

Away from training and her studies, Brianna enjoys reading, cooking and listening to alt-J, Coldplay, Bon Iver, The Staves and Kishi Bashi. She also has a soft spot for animated films, with Disney Pixar’s Up! guaranteed to reduce her to tears every time.

Her sporting hero is Paralympic legend Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and the three things she would take to a desert island would be her nutribullet blender, her boyfriend and a smartphone – “to call for rescue and browse the web!”

Brianna is Lottery Funded through UK Sport.