James Tomkins (rower)

James Tomkins
James Tomkins, 2008
Full name	James Bruce Tomkins
nation	Australia
birthday	August 19, 1965
place of birth	Sydney ,  Australia
size	199 cm
Weight	98 kg
Career
discipline	Rowing , belt
society	Mercantile Rowing Club
National squad	since 1985
status	resigned
End of career	2008
Medal table
Olympic Summer Games 3 × 0 × 1 × Rowing World Championships 7 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic Summer Games gold 1992 Barcelona Foursome without gold 1996 Atlanta Foursome without bronze 2000 Sydney Two without gold 2004 Athens Two without World championships gold 1986 Nottingham Eighth gold 1990 Lake Barrington Foursome without gold 1991 Vienna Foursome without gold 1998 Cologne Two with gold 1998 Cologne Foursome with gold 1999 St. Catharines Two without gold 2003 Milan Two without
Last change: January 23, 2016

James Bruce Tomkins (born August 19, 1965 in Sydney ) is an Australian rower . With three Olympic victories and seven world championship titles in the boat classes two without helmsman , two with helmsman , four without helmsman , four with helmsman and eighth , he is the most successful rower in Australia.

biography

Tomkins, 2 meters tall, started rowing at the age of 14 and soon became one of the preeminent athletes at his school, the Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne. From 1985 he was a member of the Australian eight national team. With this he won his first world title in 1986 in Nottingham , and at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul he was fifth.

In 1990 he began rowing in the four without a helmsman. In this discipline he won two gold medals at world championships (1990 on Lake Barrington in Tasmania , 1991 in Vienna ). Together with Andrew Cooper , Nicholas Green and Michael McKay , he also won the race at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and became Olympic champion for the first time . He repeated this success four years later in Atlanta (with Drew Ginn replacing Andrew Cooper).

In 1998 Tomkins won two world championship titles on the Fühlinger See near Cologne , in a four with a helmsman and in a two without a helmsman (together with Nicholas Green). 1999 lost Tomkins' foursome in the Australian qualifying competitions. He therefore focused on the two without a helmsman and teamed up with Drew Ginn, with whom he became world champion in St. Catharines that same year .

Tomkins and Ginn planned to take part in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , but Ginn injured his back and had to take a temporary break. With Matthew Long as his substitute, Tomkins finished third in the Olympic race, just 1.3 seconds behind the winners. In 2001 he worked as a coach in the USA for one season. Again with Ginn as rowing partner, Tomkins reached fourth place at the 2002 World Cup in Seville and a year later won the sixth world title in Milan . At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens Tomkins achieved his third Olympic victory, making him the most successful Australian rower of all time.

As a member of the Australian eighth, Tomkins reached eighth place at the 2007 World Championships on the Oberschleissheim regatta course (2nd in the B final behind the People's Republic of China) and qualified the following year for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing . There he represented Australia at the opening ceremony as the flag bearer. The Australian eight reached the Olympic final with a good performance in the pre-run and hope run . There he did not get past sixth place.

In August 2012, Tomkins was elected to the IOC's Athletes Commission for a term of eight years .

Web links

• Short Biography of James Tomkins (English)
• Article about James Tomkins (English)
• James Tomkins at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
• James Tomkins in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Results of the IOC Athletes' Commission Election. August 11, 2012, accessed September 14, 2013 .