Elise LAVERICK

Elise Laverick originally planned to be a professional musician and studied at the famed Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is highly skilled at both violin and double bass. Encouraged by her mother, a former international rower, she began to row at the age of 17.

By 1997 she had developed enough to become part of the national eight and was a bronze medallist with that crew at her first appearance in a world championship. She regularly switched boat classes until 2004 when she formed a partnership with [Sarah Winckless] in the double sculls. The highlight of this partnership came at the Olympic Games where they overhauled a Chines pair in the closing stages to win a bronze medal. A few weeks later she suffered a setback whilst riding her bicycle in London. She suffered a broken hip, fractured hand and facial damage when she was knocked off her bicycle by a hit-and-run driver. After several operations she returned to rowing six months later.

Eighteen months before the Athens Olympics she formed a new partnership with Anna Bebington which gave Laverick the second world medal of her career, another bronze, at the championships in Germany. At the 2008 Olympics the pairing figured in one of the closest races of the regatta when they finished third but less than a quarter of a second behind the New Zealand champions. She retired after the Games and began training to be a solicitor.