Gary Joseph James Lynagh (born 4 June 1970) is an eleven time Australian national champion, three time World Champion and Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia at every premier international regatta from 1990 to 1998.

Club and state rowing

Lynagh's senior rowing was from the Commercial Rowing Club in Brisbane. He began contesting national lightweight championship sculling titles at the

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

in 1988 representing Commercial. In 1989 he was in a composite Queensland lightweight eight who won the national title and in 1990 he won two Australian national championships – the lightweight double scull and the quad scull titles. He won the national championship quad in 1991, a single sculls title in 1992, the double scull in 1993 and 1994 and the quad in 1993, 1994 and 1996. In 1996 in a composite Australian selection crew Lynagh also won the national lightweight coxless four title at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

. He raced in the Queensland representative men's lightweight four who contested the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1998. He contested the heavyweight singles sculls championship – the President's Cup – representing Queensland in 1993 and 1994.

International representative rowing

Lynagh was first selected to represent Australia at Lake Barrington 1990 in the lightweight Australian

quad scull A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated as a 4x, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four people who propel the boat by sculling with two oars, or "sculls", one in each h ...

. Lynagh rowed with Bruce Hick and two Tasmanians –

Simon Burgess Simon Burgess (born 11 September 1967 in Franklin, Tasmania) is an Australian national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and dual Olympic silver medal-winning lightweight rower. He represented Australia ten times at World Ro ...

and Stephen Hawkins – to a bronze medal. The following year at Vienna 1991 that same crew won gold and a World Championship title. They rowed through the field and won by 0.23 seconds. In 1992 Stephen Hawkins was selected in the Olympic heavyweight double scull and so the champion lightweight quad was broken up. At the 1992 lightweight World Championships Lynagh and Hick had success as a double winning the lightweight double scull world championship title . They repeated this feat at Racice 1993. By Indianapolis 1994 Lynagh and Hick were rowing in the lightweight

coxless four A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain. The crew consists of four ...

with South Australians Andrew Stunnell and James Seppelt. They took the silver medal.Lynagh at World Rowing
/ref> Lynagh was back in the quad for Tampere 1995 – he stroked that crew to a sixth placing. In the

1995 Australia Day Honours The 1995 Australia Day Honours are appointments Australian honours system, to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1995 by the Governor General of Australia, Bil ...

Lynagh was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

for "service to rowing". The

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

saw lightweight events introduced to the Olympic regatta for the first time. Lynagh was selected with his longstanding sculling partner Simon Burgess in the lightweight

along with Haimish Karrasch and David Belcher. They made the Olympic final and placed sixth. Lynagh competed at all four World Rowing Cup events on the international calendar in 1997 and 1998. He was teamed with Anthony Edwards for the

1997 World Rowing Championships The 1997 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 31 August to 7 September 1997 at the Lac d'Aiguebelette, France. The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federatio ...

in Aiguebelette, stroking their double scull to fifth place. At the

1998 World Rowing Championships The 1998 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 9 to 18 September 1998 in Cologne, Germany. The World Rowing Championships are organized by World Rowing Federation, FISA, back then International Rowing Fede ...

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he raced a double scull with his old partner Bruce Hick and had a disappointing result, finishing second in the repechage and third in the C/D semi-final for an overall 12th placing. This was his last representative appearance for Australia.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynagh, Gary 1970 births Living people Australian male rowers World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Place of birth missing (living people)