Erin Kennedy

Erin Kennedy returned to cox the mixed PR3 four crew to back-to-back gold medals at Paris 2024.

Erin is best known as the coxswain of the indomitable Paralympic 4+ and talking publicly about her journey with breast cancer and her fight to return to international competition.

She joined the GB Rowing Team just two years after graduating and guided the Mixed Four in her first World Championships in 2018. She has remained with the Para four and became Paralympic Champion at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games.

Erin is a world record holder and is also a three-time World and European Champion which makes her the only cox to ever hold all three titles at once.

In May 2022, Erin was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and, perhaps unsurprisingly for those that know her well, decided to fly out to the World Cup in Serbia the following day to compete. This set the tone for how she wanted to deal with her diagnosis and with the full support of her team, despite being on chemotherapy at the time, competed in and won the European Championships in August 2022, before taking a break from rowing to focus on her treatment plan.

Erin made her return to international competition in May 2023 exactly a year to the day after her diagnosis, following recovery from a double mastectomy just four months earlier.

She was part of the crew that qualified the boat for Paris at the September 2023 World Championships and Erin celebrated her comeback by taking a four-year belated honeymoon to Kenya.

Erin and her husband Sam run a Youth Club for School Children and she is the go-to birthday cake baker for the Paralympic team.