Sonia Waddell (née Scown; born 19 February 1973) is a New Zealand athlete. She represented her country at a World Junior Championship in hurdles before becoming a

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 ...

, in which sport she was twice an Olympic competitor and where she won silver at a

World Rowing Championship The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the ...

. She later competed as a cyclist and won medals at a UCI Para-cycling Track World Championship as a sighted guide.

Private life

Waddell is the daughter of former

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

Alistair Scown Alistair Ian Scown (born 21 October 1948) was a New Zealand rugby union player. He has five caps as an All Black. All his test appearances were in 1972. Scown is known for being a player involved in what has been described as "the greatest try of ...

and sister of rugby player Hayden Scown. In 1998, she married fellow rower

Rob Waddell Robert Norman Waddell (born 7 January 1975) is a New Zealand Olympic Gold Medalist and double World Champion Single sculler rower, and America's Cup yachtsman. He is a triple New Zealand Supreme 'Halberg Awards' Sportsperson of the year winner ...

. Rower

Rebecca Scown Rebecca Scown (born 10 August 1983) is a professional Rowing (sport), rower from New Zealand. Together with Juliette Haigh, she won the bronze medal in the women's coxless pair at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Previously they had won gold in the wom ...

is her cousin.

Sports career

Athletics

She represented New Zealand in the 400 m hurdles at the

1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics was the 1990 edition of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on 8–12 August. Results Men Women Medal table Participation According to an unoffici ...

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

, Bulgaria.

Rowing

She first represented her country in rowing at the

1995 World Rowing Championships File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strik ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, Finland, where she came ninth in the women's quadruple sculls. From 1997 onwards, she competed in the single sculls, and at the

World Rowing Championships The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). It is a week-long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, she placed tenth, tenth, and fifth, respectively. At the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

, she continued to compete in the single sculls, placing sixth and fifth, respectively. She won a silver medal in the

2001 World Rowing Championships The 2001 World Rowing Championships were held from 19 to 26 August 2001 at Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland. Medal summary Men Non-Olympic classes Women Non-Olympic classes Medal table References {{Authority control World Rowing C ...

in the quadruple sculls, alongside

Paula Twining Paula Twining (born 23 April 1982) is a New Zealand rower. In 2001, she won silver at the World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland as number two oarsman in the quadruple sculls with teammates Sonia Waddell (bow), and sisters Caroline and Geo ...

and twins

Caroline Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...

and

Georgina Evers-Swindell Georgina Emma Buchanan Earl (born 10 October 1978 in Hastings, New Zealand), better known under her maiden name Georgina Evers-Swindell, is a former New Zealand rower. She competed in the double sculls with her identical twin sister Caroline Ev ...

. In the

2003 World Rowing Championships The 2003 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 25 August to 1 September 2003 on the lake Idroscalo at Milan, Italy. The international rowing season usually ends with the World Championship regatta. Apart f ...

, she competed in the single sculls and came seventh.

Cycling

In 2011, she won the New Zealand Cycling Time Trial Championship. At the

2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships The 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships were the World Championships for track cycling where athletes with a physical disability competed in 2011. The Championships took place at the Montichiari Velodrome in Montichiari, Italy from 11 t ...

she took one gold and one bronze as a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, with teammate

Jayne Parsons Jayne Parsons (born 18 March 1962 in Lower Hutt) is a New Zealand paralympic cycle sport, cyclist who New Zealand at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics along with tandem partner Annaliisa Farrell in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waddell, Sonia 1973 births Living people New Zealand female cyclists New Zealand female rowers New Zealand female sprinters Olympic rowers for New Zealand Rowers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Hāwera World Rowing Championships medalists for New Zealand UCI Para-cycling World Champions 21st-century New Zealand women