Katherine Sarah Copeland MBE (born 1 December 1990) is a retired British

Olympic Gold Medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

winning

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 ...

Personal life

She was born in

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

, to veterinarian parents Derek and Penny. She was 14 when she first learnt to row at

Yarm School Yarm School is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Yarm, North Yorkshire in the North East of England. The school accepts pupils aged 3–18 years old and has a Nursery Pre-Prep, Preparatory School, Sen ...

. She is a member of

Tees Rowing Club Tees Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the River Tees in Northeast England. The club is currently based at the River Tees Watersports Centre in Stockton-on-Tees and is affiliated to British Rowing British Rowing, formerly the Amateur Ro ...

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

. As a teacher, she also runs an after school art club for autistic children in conjunction with the Three Wings Trust. She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing. In July 2017 she received an Honorary Degree from

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

Career

An U23 World Champion in the women's lightweight single sculls, in 2012, she was selected to represent Great Britain in the

2012 London 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 ...

in the

Women's lightweight double sculls Lightweight rowing (abbreviated Lwt or Lt) is a category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum body weight of competitors. According to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), this weight category was introduced "to encourage more u ...

with

Sophie Hosking Sophie Hannah Marguerite Hosking MBE (born 25 January 1986) is a retired British rower. Personal life Hosking was born in 1986. The lightweight rower David Hosking is her father. As a teenager, she played as a midfielder for the youth team o ...

, winning the gold medal, during the so-called "Super Saturday". Katherine, being brought up in

Ingleby Barwick Ingleby Barwick is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It is south of the River Tees and north-east of the River Leven, North Yorkshire, River Leven. Large scale devel ...

and as a part of the

2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics gold post boxes 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

commemoration, had a red post box in The Rings village of Ingleby Barwick painted gold in her name, with a plaque about the gold medal win. Following her Olympic partner Hosking's retirement in 2012, Copeland partnered with Imogen Walsh in the lightweight double sculls, winning European bronze in 2014. Copeland went on to partner Charlotte Taylor, winning silver 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 ...

and gold at the

2015 European Rowing Championships The 2015 European Rowing Championships were held in Poznań, Poland, between 29 and 31 May 2015. Medal summary Men Three members of the Russian M4x crew were under investigation for anti-doping violations in 2014. Women Medal table Part ...

. Copeland and Taylor finished 14th in

at the 2016

Rio 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 ...

. Copeland won another European bronze medal in the lightweight double sculls in 2017, this time with

Emily Craig Emily Elizabeth Craig (born 30 November 1992) is a British lightweight Olympic champion and three-time world champion rower. Education Craig has a BA in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a MA in East Asian art from the S ...

. Copeland announced her retirement from competitive rowing in January 2019.

References

1990 births Living people English female rowers Rowers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2016 Summer Olympics English Olympic competitors Olympic rowers for Great Britain Sportspeople from Ashington Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in rowing Members of the Order of the British Empire Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain European Rowing Championships medalists 21st-century English sportswomen {{UK-rowing-bio-stub