The Boat Race 2023: The Olympic legacy of the Oxford-Cambridge rowing showpiece

With Paris 2024 less than 500 days away there will be no Olympians participating in this year’s Boat Race, the annual head to head between Oxford and Cambridge Universities that first took place in 1829 for men and 1927 for women. However - as history has taught, that does not mean we won’t witness breakout performances from future stars of the Olympic Games.

Oxford are the reigning champions of the men’s race, having won for the first time in six years in 2022 by two-and-a-quarter lengths in a time of 16:42, while last year’s women’s race saw Cambridge crowned victors for the fifth year in a row in a course record of 18:23.

While 176 Olympians have competed in the Boat Race, only a few have won gold medals at the Games. And as well as athletes who are best known for their roles in the world of sport, there are a number of Boat Race competitors who have become more famous for their lives away from the sporting arena.

From Olympic gold medallists Matthew Pinsent and Caryn Davies to actor Hugh Laurie and Princess Margaret's husband Lord Snowdon, here are some of the most famous Olympians and celebrities who have competed in the Boat Race.

• How to qualify for rowing at Paris 2024

Olympic gold medallists who have competed in the Boat Race

Matthew Pinsent

Perhaps the most famous of the Olympians to have competed in the Boat Race is Great Britain’s four-time Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent. Now 52, Pinsent won four consecutive Olympic titles in the coxless pair at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. He also has 10 world championships gold medals to his name.

A geography major at Oxford, Pinsent competed in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 Boat Races, winning the first two before losing in 1993 when he was Boat Club President. He has since assumed the role of race umpire, officiating his first race in 2013.

Pinsent made it clear how much the Boat Race means to the competitors in 2018, when he spoke to Radio Times about the devastation he felt at losing the 1993 race.

“The winning crews, yes, we’ve met up. But that losing crew – well, after 25 years, we’re finally going to get together and have a beer. The pain will be less intense after a quarter of a century, but the memory of it can’t be obliterated.”

James Cracknell

One of the most impressive Boat Race stories belongs to James Cracknell. Representing Britain in the coxless four, Cracknell won gold medals at both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. But 15 years later, having begun a Masters of Philosophy degree in human evolution at Cambridge University, Cracknell was chosen as part of the winning crew of the 2019 Boat Race, becoming the oldest-ever rower to compete in the race at 46.

The Olympian has a wide-ranging sporting resume, having raced in his age group for Great Britain at the 2008 European Triathlon Championships and finished 12th - the highest-ever position by a Briton at the time - and in the gruelling Marathon des Sables, a 251km ultramarathon that is considered one of the toughest in the world.

A year later in 2010, the athlete was involved in a cycling accident that left him with a brain injury, leading to epilepsy and other health issues. He has since become a vocal advocate for cycling safety with a focus on the use of helmets.

Caryn Davies

A gold medallist in both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 women’s coxed eight, the USA’s Caryn Davies made history in 2015 when she was part of the winning Oxford crew in the first-ever women’s boat race to be competed on the Tideway, the same portion of the River Thames where the men’s race is held.

At the time of racing, Davies was the most decorated female rower in US history and was studying for a Master’s degree at Oxford having previously graduated from Harvard.

The six foot four athlete was 33 when she raced, the oldest of the competitors that year and by far the tallest on her crew, with the second tallest being five foot ten.

In all, Davies competed at three Olympic Games, winning silver in Athens before her two gold medals in Beijing and London.

Kieran West

After excelling as a sculler in his teenage years, Kieran West suffered a serious lower back injury that kept him out of the water for three years. It was only in his fourth year at Cambridge University that West began to row again and he competed in his first Boat Race in 1998. A year later he raced in the legendary Cambridge Boat Race crew, winning in a time that was the second fastest in history.

The next year, West was part of the Great Britain eight crew that won gold at Sydney 2000, following it up with a world title in the coxed four in 2002.

West returned to Cambridge in 2005 and raced again in the 2006 Boat Race, where his crew's boat came close to sinking due to adverse weather conditions.

His Olympic gold in 2000 made him the first active student of Cambridge University to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Other Olympic gold medallists to have raced in the Boat Race include Tim Foster and Lukas Grubor, Oxford, who won gold medals in the coxless four representing Great Britain at Sydney 2000, Andrew Lyndsay and Ed Coode, Oxford, Olympic eight champions for Great Britain at Sydney 2000, and Jake Wetzel and Malcolm Howard, Oxford, gold medallists for Canada in the men’s eight at Beijing 2008.

Other famous Boat Race competitors

Better known for his starring acting roles in House, Black Adder and A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Cambridge graduate Hugh Laurie was a successful rower in earlier life.

As a student of archaeology and anthropology, Laurie competed in the losing crew of the 1980 Boat Race, having followed in the footsteps of his father who competed in the 1934, 1935 and 1936 Boat Races and was part of the British coxless pair that won gold at the Olympic Games London 1948.

Keen fans of the Netflix show The Crown will recognise the name of Lord Snowdon, the photographer and filmmaker who married Queen Elizabeth’s sister Princess Margaret. Lord Snowdown, whose birth name was Antony Armstrong-Jones, was the cox for Cambridge in their winning crew of 1950 while he was studying a degree in architecture at Jesus College.

Another famous race competitor was mountaineer Andrew Irvine, who rowed for Oxford during their loss in 1922 and triumph in 1923 - the only race won by Oxford between 1913 and 1937.

In 1924, aged only 22, Irvine took part in an expedition to climb Mount Everest, but disaster struck close to the summit and Irvine and his climbing partner George Mallory failed to return to camp. While Mallory’s body was found in 1999, Irvine’s was unfortunately never recovered.

• The Boat Race takes place on Sunday 26 March, 2023. Watch it live on Olympics.com (geo-restrictions may apply)