King's and the Olympic Games

UL Boat Club, 1959King's students remain committed to giving their all on the field of sport as well as in academic life and have competed in a number of Olympic games.

Elspeth Whyte, President of the Queen Elizabeth College Athletic Union, for example, represented Great Britain in the Shot and Discus at the London Olympics in 1948. An excellent all-round athlete, she also became the British Women's Shot Champion and record holder.

Long Distance Championship 1960Jeff Reeves, a Chelsea College student in the early 1960s rowed alongside Stewart Farquharson in the coxed pairs at Lake Albano during the Rome Olympics in 1960. Their cox was a schoolboy, Ken Lester, at 15 the youngest competitor on the British team and so lightweight the boat had to carry additional weights to remain within the rules.

The pair also faced problems when they discovered that their boat was an old fashioned design in which the cox sat at the stern - in newer boats the cox lay on his back at the front of the boat. This kept the centre of gravity low and made rowing easier.

Jeff Reeves and Farquharson, now a renowned anaesthetist, later teamed up again during a veterans' eight at Henley in 1999, though Reeves recalled that it was some comfort that now later in life 'rowing next to me was one of the world's best resuscitators'.

Further information

For further information please contact us ›