Jennifer Cleary (born 22 June 1993) is an Australian

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is di ...

. She competed in the

women's quadruple sculls A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated 4x, is a rowing boat 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 hand. Rac ...

event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Club and state rowing

Raised in Victoria, Cleary took up school rowing at

Geelong College , motto_translation = Thus one goes to the stars , established = , type = Independent, co-educational, day and boarding, Christian school , denomination = in association with the Uniting ...

. Her senior club rowing has been from the

Mercantile Rowing Club The Mercantile Rowing Club is based in Melbourne, Australia on the Yarra River. It was founded in 1880 and has occupied its current site since 1885. More than 40 Mercantillians have represented Australia at Olympic Games. Club history A group o ...

in Melbourne. Cleary's first state representative selection came in 2012 in the Victorian youth eight who contested the Bicentennial Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the

Australian Rowing Championships Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

. On four occasions from 2013 to 2017 Cleary was selected in Victoria's senior women's eights competing for the Queen's Cup at the Interstate Regatta. Those Victorian eights were victorious in 2013, 2015 and 2017. In 2014 she was Victoria's representative contesting and winning the interstate single-sculls championship for the Nell Slatter Trophy.

International representative rowing

Cleary made her Australian representative debut at the World Rowing Cup I in Sydney in 2013 rowing in a double scull with Rebekah Hooper to a sixth placing. That year she competed at both the

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 ...

in Linz in the Australian U23 eight and also 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 regatta was organized by FISA (the International Rowing F ...

in Chungju Korea where she was called into the Australian senior quad scull to race the B final when

Madeleine Edmunds Madeleine Edmunds (born 3 January 1992) is an Australian rower. She is a five-time national champion and a 2016 Olympian. Club and state rowing Raised in Brisbane, Edmunds' is the daughter of 1984 Olympic bronze medal winning rower Ian Edmunds ...

fell ill. In 2014 Cleary and

Kerry Hore Kerry Hore (born 3 July 1981) is an Australian former rower, a national champion, world-champion and four-time Olympian who competed in the women's quadruple sculls at the 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. She was in Australian quad s ...

joined Edmunds and Jessica Hall in the Australian quad scull. They contested two World Rowing Cups and they placed fourth at the

2014 World Rowing Championships The 2014 World Rowing Championships were the 44th edition of the World Rowing Championships and were held from 24 to 31 August 2014 at Bosbaan, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the second occasion on which the event had been held in Amsterdam, or ...

. Cleary rowed in the two seat of that same crew in 2015 and they again went to World Championships - Aiguebelette 2015 and placed fifth.Cleary at World Rowing
/ref> That crew carried on together into the 2016 Olympic year, rowing at two World Rowing Cups in Europe in the lead-up (and winning a silver medal) before contesting the

event at

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

. They made a shock exit from the games in the repechage finishing fifth in a tightly fought repechage and missing out on a spot in the A-Final. The crew powered out the start up against crews from Netherlands, Poland, Australia, USA and China. With Poland and the Netherlands taking the lead it was a battle between the rest for the remaining two spots in A Final. As they approached the final 500 m, they upped their rate but as did the USA and China and with 100 metres to go the three crews were bow ball to bow ball, and so close at the finish it resulted in a photo to decide who would join Poland and the Netherlands in the A-Final. The photos showed that Australia had finished fifth, a mere 0.06 seconds behind China, and 0.11 seconds behind USA, who'd nabbed the final two qualification spots. A visibly distraught crew spoke to the media post-race. "Yes we are pretty devastated, we threw everything at it, with the field so good in this event in particular, and at the Olympic Games, and all it took was a few strokes, that weren’t as good as we can produce, for the result to happen", said Hall.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleary, Jennifer 1993 births Living people Australian female rowers Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian women