12 Facts About Kieran West

Kieran Martin West was born on 18 September 1977 and is a retired English rower and Olympic champion who represented Great Britain.

Kieran West was introduced to rowing by his father, Richard, and began coxing at Kingston Rowing Club aged 10.

Kieran West won the National Rowing Championships in a single scull at his age category when 15, then trialled for the British under-18 rowing team.

Kieran West represented Great Britain for the first time in 1998, and made the Cambridge Blue Boat in 1999, rowing in the six seat, a position he would take in all his Cambridge crews.

Kieran West joined the British rowing team after the 2007 Boat Race, but retired from international rowing two months later to concentrate on his academic studies.

Kieran West was the first member of Cambridge University to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games while still a student.

Kieran West took a year out of his studies to concentrate on preparing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The crew of Andrew Lindsay, Ben Hunt-Davis, Simon Dennis, Louis Attrill, Luka Grubor, Kieran West, Fred Scarlett, Steve Trapmore and Rowley Douglas were all subsequently awarded the MBE for "services to rowing" in the 2001 New Year Honours.

Kieran West continued rowing internationally for the next three years, in the Men's Eight at the 2004 Athens Olympics, stroking the Eight to fourth place at the 2005 World Championships in Gifu, and back in the six seat of the Eight at the 2006 World Championships in Eton.

Kieran West's older brother, Damian, is an international oarsman, who rowed for Oxford University Boat Club in the 1996 Boat Race and for Great Britain from 1993 to 1997.

The boat was originally owned by Christ's College, Cambridge, where Kieran West was studying during his first period at Cambridge.

On 8 August 2009, Kieran West married Lourina Pretorius a former student at Newnham College, Cambridge, from South Africa.