Rosemary Popa

Fast Facts 

Sport: Rowing 
Event: Women’s Sweep Squad 
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020 (gold)
Coach: John Keogh
Highlights: Gold medal at Tokyo 2020. Winning silver at the 2019 World Championships  
Year Born: 1991 
Born: Carlton, VIC 

About Rosemary 

With a strong bloodline of rowing pedigree, Rosemary Popa was destined to reach the pinnacle of the sport of rowing. 

The daughter of Sue and Ion, two Australian bronze medallists from Los Angeles 1984, Rosemary made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where she won a gold medal as a member of the Women's Four including Annabelle Mcintyre, Jessica Morrison and Lucy Stephan. 

A dual-citizen, Popa has also represented America on the U23 stage, but decided in 2015 to revert back to Australian colours.  

In 2017, Popa earned selection to Rowing Australia’s National Training Centre, where at the Penrith base the 29-year-old has worked in the nation’s top competitive environment whilst under the tutelage of John Keogh, Tom Westgarth and Ellen Randell.  

The following year, Popa was named to the crew of Women’s Four for the World Rowing Cups the Women’s Eight for the World Championships, earning bronze in the latter competition.  

In Tokyo, Popa and the crew created history as the Australians claimed the Olympic Women's Four title after the boat class was re-introduced to the Games for the first time since the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.

The result came during the ‘the hour of power,’ a moment in time when Australia’s Men’s and Women’s Fours stormed home for gold and the Men’s and Women’s Quadruple Sculls claimed bronze. The four medals won over the course of an hour by Australian rowing crews, along with swimmer Ariarne Titmus' gold medal in the 200 metres freestyle, contributed to the most successful period in the history of the Australian Olympic Team.

Racing out of lane three in the Final, the crew held off the fast-finishing Dutch team to win the gold medal in an Olympic best time of 6 minutes 15.37 secs. The winning margin between Australia and silver medallists Netherlands was just 0.34 of a second.