Louise Kingsley
Director of Performance
Louise is the Director of Performance for the GB Rowing Team.
Since the advent of Lottery funding in 1977, Kingsley is the first female to lead British Rowing’s Performance programme and brings more than 20 years experience from within the sport, initially as a successful coach and then running the governing body’s performance pathway and Paralympic programme.
She was the Deputy Director of Performance Pathways and Paralympic Programme, leading the GB Rowing Team (GBRT) para squad to two gold medals at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. She then acted as Interim Director of Performance until her current appointment in December 2021. She is also a Non-Executive Director at British Shooting.
Following a successful international coaching career – she coached GB’s first junior women’s World Championships medal in 1993 – Louise joined the GB Rowing Team in 1997 as High Performance Coach for New Talent (Women) and went on to coach at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Reward for Louise comes from “seeing the rowers progress and achieve levels they never dreamed of”. Rowing became part of the Paralympic programme in 2006 and Louise became the GBRT Paralympic Programme Manager, working with Sir David Tanner – rowing’s Performance Director. She was appointed Team Leader for Rowing in Beijing, London and Rio.
Louise’s other key role is ensuring that the GBRT Development Pathway provides a robust and consistent supply of talent. She oversees GBRT’s High Performance Programmes in Clubs, which, with the backing of Lottery funding, offers support and guidance to the institutions that have a track record of producing rowers capable of challenging for places in the national squad.
Beyond the Boat
A lifelong sportswoman, away from work Louise enjoys an active life and has represented Surrey in Women’s Recurve Archery for the past four years.
Louise’s ideal dinner guests would include Serena Williams, Pierre de Coubertin and her father.
