Eve Macfarlane (born 27 September 1992) is a New Zealand

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

. Described as a "natural rower", she went to the 2009

World Rowing Junior Championships The World Rowing U19 Championships, former name 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 Decemb ...

within a few months of having taken up rowing and won a silver medal. She represented New Zealand at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as the country's youngest Olympian at those games. She was the 2015 world champion in the women's

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, 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") ar ...

s with

Zoe Stevenson Zoe Stevenson (born 19 June 1991) is a New Zealand rower. She won gold in the women's double sculls with Fiona Bourke at the 2014 World Rowing Championships. Stevenson was born in 1991. She obtained her secondary education at Tauranga Girls' Co ...

. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, they came fourth in the semi-finals and thus missed the A final.

Junior rowing

Macfarlane was born in 1992 and grew up in

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; , ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is, and historically has been, especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers scenic views of the c ...

, just north of Cheviot. She was educated at

Rangi Ruru Girls' School Rangi Ruru Girls' School is a New Zealand private school, private girls' day and boarding school, boarding secondary school located in Merivale, Christchurch, Merivale, an inner suburb of Christchurch. The school is affiliated with the Presbyte ...

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

where she was into many sports, including "netball, basketball, athletics, volleyball, touch, cross-country running". She excelled at any sport she tried and Rex Farrelly, Rangi Ruru's long-term rowing coach, asked her if she wanted to try rowing, which she started in 2009. Farrelly says that "there's very few natural rowers. Eve was one." Gary Hay, one of the other rowing coaches at Rangi Ruru, describes her as a natural rower: Macfarlane competed for Rangi Ruru in the 2009 and 2010

Maadi Cup The Maadi Cup is the prize for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Boys' Under 18 Rowing Eights. More colloquially, it is the name given to the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta, at which the Maadi Cup is raced. The regatta is the large ...

national secondary school rowing championships, and was a member of the crews that won the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup (girls under-18 eights) and Dawn Cup (girls under-18 coxed fours) for the school in both years. Her 2009 Maadi Cup appearance guaranteed her a place in the junior women's eight that went to the

in August 2009 in

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the aggl ...

, France; within months of having taken up rowing, she won a silver medal at a World Rowing Junior Championship.

and Francie Turner were also in the boat. Macfarlane changed to a women's four and with Beatrix Heaphy-Hall, Jennifer Storey, and Grace Prendergast, she won gold at the 2010 World Rowing Junior Championships in Račice, Czech Republic. At the

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, ) officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, she won the B Final with Beatrix Heaphy-Hall in the junior women's pair.

Elite rowing

She changed to the elite class in 2011, having skipped the under 23 class, and came under the guidance of national coach Dick Tonks. Tonks changed her from a sweep rower to a sculler and placed her in a women's quadruple scull. The four, which included Sarah Gray, Fiona Bourke and Louise Trappitt, surprised themselves by winning bronze at the regattas in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

(Germany) and

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

(Switzerland). They maintained their form and won a bronze at the

2011 World Rowing Championships The 2011 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 28 August to 4 September 2011 at Lake Bled, adjoining the Slovenian city of Bled. The annual week-long rowing regatta is organized by World Rowing Federatio ...

Lake Bled Lake Bled () is a lake in the Julian Alps of the Upper Carniolan region of northwestern Slovenia, where it adjoins the town of Bled. The area is a tourist destination. The lake is from Ljubljana International Airport and from the capital ci ...

Bled Bled (; ,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper Carniolan regio ...

, Slovenia. In 2012, Macfarlane competed with the women's quad at regattas in Lucerne (Switzerland; fourth place) and Munich (Germany; fifth place). The quad then went to the

with a strong expectation for a medal when Trappitt "caught a crab" and snapped an oar at the 1500 m mark in the repechage. This cost the team their place in the final (they would have had to be within the first four but came last in the repechage), and they subsequently came first in the B final. Macfarlane was New Zealand's youngest representative in London. In 2013, Macfarlane was part of the women's eight. At regattas in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

(Australia) and Lucerne (Switzerland), they came fifth and sixth, respectively. At the

2013 World Rowing Championships The 2013 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 25 August to 1 September 2013 at Tangeum Lake, Chungju in South Korea. The annual week-long rowing (sport), rowing regatta was organized by International Row ...

held at

Tangeum Lake Tangeum Lake () is an artificial lake at Chungju in South Korea., 2013 Chungju, South Korea. The lake is located between Chungju Dam and another dam that regulates its flow. There are leisure facilities including Jungangtap Park and Keum Spor ...

Chungju Chungju () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Uamsan is a mountain located within the outskirts of the city. The city is famous for the annual martial arts festival held in October. Al ...

, South Korea, the eight came first in the B final. MacFarlane did not race in 2014. At regattas in

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

(Italy) and Lucerne (Switzerland) in 2015, she competed in the

s with

, winning gold in both finals. The pair went to 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 the Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette-le-Lac in France. Description The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by ...

held at

Lac d'Aiguebelette The Lac d'Aiguebelette (; Lake of Aiguebelette) is a natural lake north of the Chartreuse Mountains in the French Alps and just west of the Chaîne de l'Épine in the Jura Mountains. It is located within five Communes of France, communes in the Sa ...

in Aiguebelette, France, and again won gold. Stevenson and MacFarlane qualified for the

, but were beaten in the semi-finals by the US by 5/100 into fourth place, thus missing the A final. In November 2016, both MacFarlane and Stevenson announced that they would take the 2017 rowing season off.

Private life

Macfarlane lives in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

to be close to

Lake Karapiro Lake Karapiro () is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River at Karapiro, south-east of Cambridge, New Zealand, Cambridge in New Zealand's North Island. The lake was formed in 1947 by the damming of the Waikato River to store water for ...

for her rowing training. She holds a Diploma in Art and Creativity with honours, obtained through extramural study at the Learning Connexion in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:MacFarlane, Eve New Zealand female rowers 1992 births Living people Olympic rowers for New Zealand Rowers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics People educated at Rangi Ruru Girls' School World Rowing Championships medalists for New Zealand 21st-century New Zealand painters Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Rowers from the Canterbury Region 21st-century New Zealand sportswomen