 Osborne in 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1994-03-10)10 March 1994 (age 31) Waikato, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 70 kg (154 lb)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | ||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Single scull, Double sculls | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Hannah Osborne (born 10 March 1994) is a New Zealand rower. A member of the national squad, she qualified for the2020 Summer Olympics. In a surprise move, she was selected in thedouble scull alongsideBrooke Donoghue, displacing the reigning twice world championOlivia Loe. Osborne and Donoghue raced to a silver medal in Tokyo.
Osborne was born in 1994,[1] the eldest of four children. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she grew up with her father; her siblings went with her mother. She was raised on a 3,000-acre sheep and beef farm run by her father and grandfather[2] not far fromWaitomo Caves.[3] She initially attendedPiopio College[2] in theWaitomo District and then switched toWaikato Diocesan School inHamilton.[4]
While Osborne was at Piopio College, she took up rowing in 2009 and changed to Waikato Diocesan School as that school offered a rowing programme.[4] For the 2011/12 rowing season, she joined the Waikato Rowing Performance Centre and was sent to the 2012World Rowing Junior Championships inPlovdiv, Bulgaria. Competing in thequad scull, her team (includingRuby Tew andZoe McBride) won a bronze medal. The following year, she raced the quad scull in the2013 World Rowing U23 Championships inOttensheim, Austria, where her team (includingOlivia Loe) came fifth. After that season, Osborne transferred to theUniversity of Virginia (UVA) for study and further rowing.[1][4] In October 2014, Osborne was part of the women's UVA eight that won theHead of the Charles Regatta inBoston,Massachusetts, United States. After problems at UVA, she transferred to theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[2]
Osborne returned to New Zealand in 2015 and competed in the quad scull in the2016 World Rowing U23 Championships inRotterdam, Netherlands, where the team came first in the B-final. From the 2016/17 season, she has competed as an elite rower, initially insingle scull after single scullerEmma Twigg took time off rowing following the2016 Summer Olympics.[4][5] Her first international race as an elite competitor was in the 2017 World Rowing Cup II inPoznań, Poland, where she came fifth. In the 2017 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland, she came second in the B-final. In herinaugural world championships in 2017 inSarasota, Florida, she came second in the B-final (eighth overall). She continued in single scull and in the following year, came second in the B-final in the 2018 World Rowing Cup II, fourth in the B-final in the 2018 World Rowing Cup III, and eighth overall in the2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv.[1][4] In October 2018, she won the Philadelphia Gold Cup Challenge (single scull) of theHead of the Schuylkill Regatta inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, United States. She beatCarling Zeeman in a photo finish by 0.06 seconds, with the reigning world champion,Sanita Pušpure, in third place.[6] Twigg had come out of retirement in September 2018, with her eyes set to once again be the nation's representative in single scull.[7]
At the 2019New Zealand Rowing Championships onLake Ruataniwha, Twigg regained the national championship in single scull, with Osborne coming eighth.[8] Osborne took out a national title in the quad scull (alongside Twigg,Brooke Donoghue, and Samantha Voss) and the double scull (alongside Donoghue).[9][10] Osborne initially became a reserve rower for the national team for the 2019 international season. At the 2019 World Rowing Cup II in Poznań, she was called up for the women's four and the team came third in the B-final. In the2019 World Rowing Championships in Ottensheim, she was called up for a newly formed quad scull and the team gained fifth place in its second event this team was racing in.[1] This fifth place gained New Zealand a quota spot in quad scull for the2020 Tokyo Olympics.[4][11] Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, there was no international rowing during 2020.[1]
At the New Zealand Rowing announcement of the female elite team in February 2021, Osborne was part of the quad scull.[12] When the crew selections for Tokyo were made in June 2021, it came as a surprise that Osborne had displaced Olivia Loe, joining Donoghue in the double scull. The Donoghue/Loe duo had been twice world champions in this discipline – 2017 and 2019. Loe was instead selected to the quad scull.[5][13]Stuff's rowing commentator Ian Anderson considered the women's double scull "to be among NZ's leading medal contenders in Tokyo".[14] Osborne and Donoghue won their heat, placed second in the semi-final and took the silver medal in the Olympic final behind Romania.[1]
