Downing's Summer of Sport: Stephen Peel

Downing's Summer of Sport: Stephen Peel 

After Team GB’s success on the water yesterday, all eyes turn again today to the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris, where more rowing medals will be hotly contested. Downing has had six alums compete in Olympic rowing over the years. Stephen Peel (1984) represented Team GB at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He tells us about his experiences of the Games and how rowing continues to play a big part in his life.

How did you become interested in rowing?

As a young child, I had always loved being in or on water – swimming, kayaking, sailing – and so when I got the opportunity to try rowing at school at the age of 13, I jumped at it. Rowing quickly moved from an interest to an obsession.

When did you realise you had a talent for rowing and how did you get involved in national and international competitions?

I had a reasonably successful school rowing career such that on going up to Cambridge in 1984 I hoped that I might be quite good, but really had little idea how I would compare against top University and international rowers. In my first week at Cambridge, I trialled for the University squad and was accepted. A few weeks later, I entered the two University sculling races, one for first year undergraduates and the other open to all. I won the former and reached the final of the latter, coming second only to an Olympic silver medalist who was at Cambridge. On the way to the final, I had beaten the rest of the University squad including several who had raced in the previous year’s Boat Race crews. At this point, I set my aspirations to get in the Boat Race crew in my first year, which I did. After the Boat Race, I rowed for Downing in the May Bumps, rowed again for Cambridge at Henley and then trialled for the GB national rowing team, which was rebuilding after the 1984 Olympics. 

I was fortunate enough to be selected for the GB heavyweight eight and rowed in the 1985 world championships. From then on, my time at Cambridge was spent juggling rowing for the University in the Boat Races, training and racing with the national rowing team mainly in London and completing my degree course.

Representing your country at an Olympic Games is an extraordinary achievement, can you say something about what that was like?

Looking back now, all these years later, the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul is a huge blur. I was 22 years old, had never been to an event of this magnitude, never been to Asia, and in fact I had hardly travelled. And then I found myself competing at the Olympic Games in the GB heavyweight coxless four with an expectation of a medal, possibly a gold. I was so intensely focused on the competition, on performing in my race, that I shut out almost everything else about the Olympics. We came fourth in the final by fractions of a second after an unexceptional row. I returned home disappointed in the experience given I made the Olympics solely about the result. Eager to get on with my life, I decided to retire from rowing rather than become a full-time athlete for the next four-year Olympic campaign. I went to the city, started a career initially in investment banking and then in the private equity industry.

Who were/are your sporting role models?

I grew up watching David Wilkie and Duncan Goodhew winning swimming gold medals in the Montreal and Moscow Olympics and was ever in awe of talent and competitive spirit of Daley Thompson as he won the decathlon in Moscow and Los Angeles. But I have huge respect for all top sportspeople given I feel I somewhat understand how much single-minded, hard work is involved in the years of preparation to compete at that level.

What did you study at Downing and why did you choose your subject?

I started my Tripos studying Natural Sciences given I thought I wanted to be a physicist. After my first year, I switched to Land Economy, a course I hugely enjoyed, and which proved to be much better preparation for my subsequent career.

How did you balance your studies at Downing with training and competing?

The word balance implies a degree of poise and control that was certainly absent from my time at Downing. I trained all the time, and then tried to fit in my studies. In my last term, as I was preparing for my final exams, I recall telling the GB coaches that I was going to have to take a three-week break from coming to London three days a week to train with the GB coxless four preparing for the world championships. They instantly dropped me from the crew. On finishing my final exam, I rushed to the station to get the train to London to start racing my way back into my seat on the boat.

What are your key memories/takeaways from your time at Downing?

While rowing dominated my time at University, I did enjoy Downing immensely. I fondly recall always being able to walk into the College dining hall or bar and find a friendly face to sit down and talk with. I may have had fewer of those archetypal Downing moments than others but still recall halcyon days laying out on the lawn, cocktail parties in the Master’s garden, cheering College crews at the bumps, May Balls and punting to Grantchester.

What have you been doing since retiring from your sport?

I stopped rowing shortly after the 1988 Olympics, one year after graduating. I spent the next 30 years in the private equity industry across Europe, the US and Asia, living in the UK, Germany, the US, Hong Kong and even briefly in Russia. I now spend my time investing my own capital in innovative companies focused on energy transition and life sciences, while also pursuing several not-for-profit interests. 

I aways felt I had some unfinished business with the sport of rowing and so set up a charity teaching life skills through competitive rowing to underprivileged children. The charity, the Infinity Boat Club, is based in the north-east in Teesside and takes children from local state schools in one of the most underserved areas of the UK. The club provides the young athletes with full-time coaches, boats and a fully equipped gym that compares with the best private school programs, all for free. We encourage them to enjoy rowing, to train and to race at the highest level with the view that the sport fosters critical life skills such as teamwork, leadership, commitment and resilience in addition to the obvious health benefits. In our first year, Infinity athletes are already regularly featuring on the podiums at local and national level competitions.

Will you be attending the Paris Games this summer? Who’s your top tip for a medal?

I will not be attending but will follow ardently on television. Watch Cambridge rowing alums Imogen Grant in the lightweight women’s double sculls, Henry Fieldman coxing the women’s eight and Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George in the men’s pair. All are potential gold medalists.

Published 1 August 2024