Joshua's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Rowing
Event: Men’s Eight
Olympic History: London 2012, Rio 2016
Coach: Rhett Ayliffe
Highlights: Winning silver at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Men’s Four Event
Year Born: 1990
Born: Melbourne, VIC
Junior Club: Scotch College (Hawthorn, VIC)
About Joshua
Josh Booth first tasted Olympic competition as a fresh-faced 21-year-old, where he finished part of an Australian Men’s Eight outfit that finished sixth overall in the London Games. While continuing to complete his medical studies, Booth appeared at the World Rowing Cup in 2013 and 2014, where he took out gold in the former competition.
After sentiments of World Cup glory drifted away, Booth opted to focus on his tertiary education, with rowing forced to take a secondary role in his life.
However, this realignment of priorities was short-lived for Booth, whose passion for the sport lured his focus back to rowing and on a potential second Olympic campaign.
Booth swapped the Men’s Eight for the Men’s Four in 2016, and was thrust into an experienced crew featuring William Lockwood, Joshua Dunkley-Smith and Alexander Hill for a second Olympic campaign.
On the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, Booth - and the Australian Team - finished between Great Britain and Italy to earn a silver medal in the Men’s Four.
The following year saw Booth relocate to Canberra to join coaches Ian Wright, Mark Prater and Andrew Randell at the Reinhold Batschi National Training Centre. From the nation’s capital, Booth earned World Championship and World Rowing Cup selection in the 2018 Australian Men’s Eight. The Melbourne native left both major events with a silver medal.
The next year, Booth earned a second World Cup gold medal, this time in the Men’s Pair.
He was selected to his third Australian Olympic Team as a member of the Men's Eight that competed at Tokyo 2020.
There, the crew came up against rowing powerhouses in their Heat, including World Champions Germany as well as the USA and Romania. The fast race was dominated early by the American and German crews with Australia finishing fourth behind Romania to proceed to the repechage.
The crew was able to advance to the A-Final after they finished the repechage in fourth position, this time ahead of the Romanians, and they once again faced a stacked field in the race for medals. Racing out of lane six against the USA, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain, the Australian crew was behind at the start and unable to make up the time or speed throughout the race they finished sixth overall.
Read More
