David Watts (born 1992) is an Australian rower. A national champion and national representative, he is a 2016 Olympian and won silver medals at the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and 2018 World Rowing Championships.

School, club and state rowing

Watts was born in England before moving to

Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...

, Western Australia. As a child he was a successful state swimmer and a young member of a teenage squad which swam across the arduous English Channel establishing himself as a determined, young athlete, aged 13 years. He moved to the sport of rowing after being identified as a talented athlete by the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. Previously, if elite athletes from Western Australian needed to train or ...

's Talent Identification Program. He attended a public school, Churchlands SHS then

Trinity College, Perth , motto_translation = In The Name of the Lord , established = , type = Independent primary and secondary day school , gender = Boys , denomination = Congregation of Chri ...

for year 12 . He was a welcome member of their champion 1st VIII of 2009. He won numerous medals at state level and first represented Australia in Ottensheim in the Junior Men's World Championships, in the four, at the young age of 16, stroking the boat and finishing a very respectable 4th place in the A final. In 2009, aged 17, he won the Australian National Schoolboy's single scull (representing Trinity College, Perth), the under 19 single scull, two further gold medals and one silver in various crew boats. Earlier that year, aged 16, he also claimed the long-standing W.A. PSA indoor

ergometer Ergometer may refer to: *Exercise machine, equipped with an apparatus for measuring the work performed by exercising * Indoor rower, called an ergometer by rowers * An instrument for measuring the amount of work done by human muscles ''Ergometer ...

record. Watts' senior rowing was initially from the Swan River Rowing Club in Perth, and later the Sydney Rowing Club when he moved east for national representation. From 2007 until the present, Watts has won numerous National medals in various boats, both sweep and sculling. He has rowed regularly in Western Australian men's senior eights contesting the King's Cup at the Australian Rowing Championships.

International rowing career

Watts made a number of underage appearances for Australia – at the 2008 and 2010

Junior World Rowing Championships The World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 December of the year in which he reaches the age of ...

; the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics as one of only two, Australian male rowers selected and the 2012 and 2014

World Rowing U23 Championships World Rowing U23 Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" , ) is a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the physical and electronic s ...

, winning three bronze medals, including one at the Youth Olympics, Singapore. At the

2015 World Rowing Championships The 2015 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 2015 at Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette in France. Description The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the Int ...

on Lac d'Aiguebelette, France, as the crew's youngest rower, he stroked the men's quadruple scull (M4x) to a silver medal with David Crawshay,

Karsten Forsterling Karsten Forsterling (born 21 January 1980) is an Australian former representative rower. He was a national champion, world champion, a dual Olympian and Olympic medal winner. He represented Australia at eight senior world rowing cham ...

and Cameron Girdlestone.Watts at World Rowing
/ref> qualifying the quad for the Rio Olympics. In 2016 Watts was selected to stroke Australia's

double scull A double scull is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") are long, narrow, and broadly ...

at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Chris Morgan, successfully winning the B final in an extremely competitive boat class. In 2017 Watts rowed Australia's double scull with Luke Letcher at two World Rowing Cups in Europe and then at the

2017 World Rowing Championships The 2017 World Rowing Championships were the 47th edition of the World Rowing Championships that were held from 24 September to 1 October 2017 in Sarasota, Florida. Host selection During 2013, Plovdiv and Sarasota, Florida both applied to host ...

where they finished in a disappointing seventeenth place. In 2018 he had more success with a new crew of Caleb Antill,

Nicholas Purnell Nicholas Purnell (born 4 June 1990) is an Australian representative and dual Olympian rower. He is a national champion, who has competed at seven world championships and in the men's eight event at the 2012 London and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ...

and Campbell Watts when he again stroked the quad to a silver medal success in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, rowing through most of the field from the 1000m mark and finishing in second place just behind Italy, eliminating the world champions, Lithuania, along the way. In 2018 he was Western Australia's selected representative in the single sculls event – contesting the President's Cup – at the Interstate Regatta, winning the silver medal. In 2019 he was selected with Alex Purnell, Antill and Girdlestone to row Australia's quad scull for the 2019 international season. They placed 2nd at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and 4th at WRC III in Rotterdam. With Girdlestone, Campbell Watts and Hamish Playfair, Watts was again selected as the experienced stroke seat to race Australia's quad scull at the

2019 World Rowing Championships The 2019 World Rowing Championships were held in Ottensheim, Austria from 25 August to 1 September 2019. Apart from Ottensheim, the right to host the championships was contested by Hamburg in Germany, Račice in the Czech Republic, and Varese ...

in Linz, Austria. The quad were looking for a top eight finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. They won their heat and placed third in the semi-final, thereby qualifying the boat for the A-final and the Olympics in

Tokyo 2020 The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

. They finished in overall world fourth place. In May, 2021 at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, after already qualifying the Australian men's quad for the Tokyo Olympics together with Campbell Watts, they attempted to qualify the men's double scull for Australia which had failed to qualify in 2019. The Watts crew made the A final, finishing a close 3rd place after a hard-fought battle and missed the Olympic cut-off qualification by one second.https://rowingaustralia.com.au/2021/05/16/australia-qualifies-its-womens-quadruple-scull-for-tokyo/ Final Olympic qualification event 2021 Watts is one of Australia's top scullers who stroked two quad sculls towards Olympic qualification, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020/21. His leadership skills were observed and encouraged by Rowing Australia and he is a member of their Ambassador program and Athlete's Commission 2020/21.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, David Living people 1992 births Rowers from Perth, Western Australia Australian male rowers Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Rowers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Sportsmen from Western Australia