John Storey (born 19 July 1987) 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 ...

. He competed at the Olympics in 2012 and 2016, and won a world championship title in double scull in 2017 alongside Chris Harris. Storey announced his retirement from international rowing in April 2021.

Family and private life

Storey was born in England and grew up 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 ...

. His family moved to

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 ...

in New Zealand when he was 13 years old as his father, Bryan Storey, took a teaching position at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

. His younger sister, Jenny Storey, has represented New Zealand with the Black Sticks. Storey had finished three of the four years of a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Canterbury when he was selected to join the New Zealand rowing team in 2008. He postponed his engineering degree and moved to the

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

to be able to train at

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 ...

. While there, he studied finance extra-murally. Storey took 2013 off from rowing and finished his mechanical engineering degree. Storey is engaged to former rower Louise Trappitt.

Rowing

Storey started rowing in 2003 and rows for the Avon Rowing Club based in

. He first represented New Zealand overseas at the

World Rowing U23 Championships World Rowing U23 Championships is an international rowing regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is ...

in 2009 in the men's coxed four in Račice, Czech Republic, where he won gold with team mates Ian Seymour, Tobias Wehr-Candler, David Eade, and Matthew Cameron (cox). He joined New Zealand's men's quadruple sculls team in 2010 and was a member until 2012, and again from 2014 onwards; he took a year off from rowing in 2013. The team went to 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 ...

and won the B final; his team mates were Michael Arms,

Robbie Manson Robert W. Manson (born 11 October 1989) is a New Zealand rower. Manson was born in 1989. He is from a family of rowers, with his father Greg the singles lightweight national champion in 1985, and his brother Karl also competing internationally ...

, and Matthew Trott. 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 the Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette-le-Lac in France. Description The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by ...

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 ...

, Aiguebelette in France, the team made of Karl Manson, Storey,

George Bridgewater George Spencer Bridgewater (born 18 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rower who competed in the pair at international level with Nathan Twaddle. The pair began representing New Zealand together in 2004 and won bronze medals at the 2008 Summ ...

, and

Jade Uru Jade Uru (born 20 October 1987) is a New Zealand rower. He is from Ngāi Tahu tribe and brother of Storm Uru. The broadcaster Tui Uru (1926–2013) was their great-aunt. Tui Uru's father, the Reform Party MP Henare Uru, was a great-grandfathe ...

came third in the B final and missed 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 ...

qualifying time by 5/100-second, being narrowly beaten by Ukraine for the eights and final qualifying place. At the Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, in May 2016—the last chance to qualify for the 2016 Olympics—they came third behind teams from Russia and Canada, and thus did not qualify. After a positive doping test returned by Russian crew member

Sergey Fedorovtsev Sergey Anatolyevich Fedorovtsev (, born 31 January 1980) is a Russian rower. Career Competing in quadruple sculls, he won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and the European title in 2011 and 2015. His teams placed seventh and eighth at the 200 ...

, the Russian team was disqualified by the world rowing federation and the New Zealand team was assigned an Olympic quota spot. For the competition in Rio, Manson was replaced by Nathan Flannery in the bow. On 12 April 2021, Storey announced his retirement from rowing.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, John 1987 births Living people New Zealand male rowers Olympic rowers for New Zealand Rowers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Rowers from Christchurch Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for New Zealand 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen