| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men'srowing | ||
Representing Canada | ||
| Summer Olympics | ||
 | 2008 Beijing | Men's eight |
 | 2004 Athens | Coxless four |
| World Championships | ||
Representingthe United States | ||
| 1999 St. Catharines | Coxed four |
| Representing Canada | ||
| 2003 Milan | Coxless four |
| 2007 Munich | Eight |
| Henley Royal Regatta | ||
| 2003Stewards' Challenge Cup | Men's four |
| 2007Grand Challenge Cup | Men's eight |
Jacob Wetzel (born December 26, 1976) is a Canadianrower. He has represented both Canada and the United States at the World Championships and the Olympics. He was born inSaskatoon,Saskatchewan, Canada.[1]
As a teenager, Wetzel was on the Canadian Junior Cycling team; he only began rowing in the fall of 1997 at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. His success was immediate and extraordinary. His collegiate boat was undefeated and won the freshman 8 event at the 1998Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship (IRA). That summer Wetzel tried out for and made the Canadian National team in the pair event (2-) and finished seventh at the World Championships inCologne, Germany.
In 1999, 2001, and 2002 he again competed for Berkeley where he was coached bySteve Gladstone, this time in the varsity 8. All three years his boats won the IRA and were de facto national champions. In 1999 and 2001, his boats were undefeated. In 2002, his boat suffered a single loss to theUniversity of Washington, but beat Washington on several other occasions including the IRA.
Internationally, Wetzel competed for the United States team in 1999 (Coxed Four (4+) gold medal at the World Championships in St. Catharines) and in 2000 (7th place with the Quad (4x) at the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney). In 1999, Wetzel was one of the principal subjects in theOutside Magazine article "Blood in the Water" on the difficulties and internal competition involved in trying to make a national team boat.[2]
After a two-year pause because of a shoulder injury caused by a mountaineering accident, in 2003 Wetzel returned to the international rowing scene and he joined Team Canada. Wetzel made the coxless four (4-) and he won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships inMilan, Italy. At the2004 Summer Olympics, Wetzel's boat finished second by inches to Great Britain.
In 2005/2006 Wetzel completed an MSc in Financial Economics at theUniversity of Oxford (Linacre College/Saïd Business School). He was a member of the victorious Oxford crew in the 2006Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.
He also won at the2007 World Championships in Canada's M8+.
He won the gold medal at the2008 Summer Olympics in the men's eights withAndrew Byrnes,Kyle Hamilton,Malcolm Howard,Adam Kreek,Kevin Light,Ben Rutledge,Dominic Sieterle and coxBrian Price.[3]
Wetzel announced his retirement from international rowing at the Beijing Olympics; Wetzel enrolled in the PhD programme in Finance at theUniversity of British Columbia in autumn 2008.[4]
Wetzel was selected as the most highly decorated rower from the Pac-12 conference when he was selected as its Rower of the Century in 2016.[5] In 2017, he became the first University of California, Berkeley rower alum to be inducted into the Cal Sports Hall of Fame as an individual.[6]
