Two world champions, eight medals, history made in the single sculls and extraordinary performances from Britain’s eights, the GB Rowing Team has delivered a magnificent World Championships in Amsterdam, and with Los Angeles 2028 now less than two years away, British rowing is gathering serious momentum.
There are few sights in sport quite like a British rowing crew powering towards the finish line, and at the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, the Union Flag was once again a regular visitor to the podium.
Great Britain leaves the championships with an impressive eight medals, two golds, four silvers and two bronzes, after a week which offered plenty of evidence that one of this country’s great Olympic sporting traditions is in formidable health.
And leading the charge was Britain’s new rowing queen, Lauren Henry.
Henry produced a magnificent performance to become the first British woman in history to win the Women’s Single Sculls at a World Rowing Championships.
That is not merely another gold medal for the collection, it is a genuine piece of British sporting history.
The 27-year-old Leicester Rowing Club athlete came into the final against a formidable field which included Dutch Olympic champion Karolien Florijn and Ireland’s defending world champion Fiona Murtagh.
Henry had taken silver at the 2025 World Championships, losing the title to Murtagh by the almost impossibly small margin of 0.03 seconds.
This time there would be no denying her.
Florijn initially led in front of her home crowd, but Henry reeled her in, moved to the front after around 1,200 metres and powered clear over the closing stages to take the world crown.
It was a landmark victory.
Before Henry, the best achieved by a British woman in the event had been silver, by Beryl Crockford in 1981, Katherine Grainger in 2009, Vicky Thornley in 2017 and Henry herself last year.
Now Britain finally has its first women’s single sculls world champion.
“I can’t believe it,” Henry said afterwards.
She spoke of the work required to move from silver to gold and paid tribute to the support of her family and coach Andrew Randell, describing becoming world champion as their dream.
But Henry was far from Britain’s only world champion in Amsterdam.
Welsh Paralympic champion Benjamin Pritchard delivered another outstanding performance to retain his PR1 Men’s Single Sculls world title.
Pritchard has not been beaten in the event since winning Paralympic gold at Paris 2024, and in Amsterdam he stormed to another victory, finishing in 8:50.46 and establishing a new World Rowing Championships best time.
It completed a superb season for the Swansea Rowing Club athlete, who had already broken his own indoor 2,000-metre world record and added another European title to his collection.
Then came the eights, and what races they produced.
Britain’s men’s eight delivered one of the most thrilling performances of the entire championships.
Will Stewart, Matt Rowe, Gabriel Obholzer, Sam Nunn, David Bewicke-Copley, Harry Geffen, Miles Beeson and Archie Drummond, with Tom Bryce as cox, found themselves fourth at the halfway point of an extraordinarily fast final.
They fought back.
By 1,500 metres Britain was third, then the crew launched its attack on Australia and the host nation, the Netherlands.
The Dutch had the home crowd roaring them towards the line, Britain was coming at them, and the race ended in a photo finish.
The difference between becoming world champion and taking silver was just six hundredths of a second.
The Netherlands took gold, Great Britain silver and Australia bronze.
All three went faster than the previous world-best time.
Silver perhaps does not quite tell the story of how extraordinary that British performance was.
Britain’s women then produced a little piece of history of their own.
Lizzie Witt, Jade Lindo, Amelia Standing, Katherine George, Lauren Irwin, Eve Stewart, Heidi Long and Annie Campbell-Orde, coxed by Jack Tottem, raced to silver in the Women’s Eight.
It was Britain’s best ever World Championship result in the event.
Their time of 5:52.76 was also the fastest ever recorded by a British women’s eight and faster than the previous world-best time, although Romania went quicker still to take gold in 5:51.88.
There was more British success in the quadruple sculls.
Olympic champions Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott and Imogen Grant, joined by World Championship debutant Finn Stratton, secured silver in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls behind the Netherlands.
Britain has now taken either gold or silver in the women’s quad at each of the last three World Championships and at the Paris 2024 Olympics, underlining the remarkable consistency of the programme.
Cedol Dafydd, Callum Dixon, Tobias Schröder and Rory Harris added bronze in the Men’s Quadruple Sculls, while Britain’s Men’s Four also battled its way onto the podium with bronze in an exceptionally competitive final won by the United States.
Britain’s PR3 Mixed Coxed Four completed the medal haul with silver.
It all meant the GB Rowing Team finished Amsterdam with eight medals, exactly the same overall number it achieved at the 2025 World Championships, despite an increasingly competitive international field.
There is a wider story here too.
Britain remains one of the great rowing nations.
World Rowing’s historical figures show Great Britain has amassed 225 World Championship medals, including 86 golds, an extraordinary record stretching across generations of British rowers. Germany’s latest victory in Amsterdam brought it level with Britain on 86 World Championship golds.
For decades, British rowing has given this country some of its most unforgettable sporting moments.
Names such as Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, Katherine Grainger and Helen Glover have become part of Britain’s Olympic story.
Now another generation is coming through.
And perhaps the most exciting part is the timing.
There are less than two years to go until the Olympic Games return to Los Angeles in 2028.
Nobody in elite sport can take Olympic success for granted. The Dutch, Romanians, Americans, Germans, Australians and other major rowing nations are producing exceptional crews of their own, and Amsterdam demonstrated just how tiny the margins at the top have become.
Six hundredths of a second separated Britain’s men’s eight from a world title.
But that is precisely why these results should excite British supporters.
This is not a team hoping somehow to become competitive by Los Angeles.
Britain is already winning world titles, breaking historical barriers, recording some of the fastest performances it has ever produced and putting crews on World Championship podiums across multiple boat classes.
The challenge over the next two years is to turn those silvers and bronzes into gold.
Lauren Henry has already shown how it can be done.
She left the 2025 World Championships with silver, beaten by three hundredths of a second.
Twelve months later, she returned, attacked the world’s best and became Britain’s first ever women’s single sculls world champion.
That is the mentality British rowing will want to carry all the way to California.
Eight medals in Amsterdam, two new world champions, history made, and some tantalisingly small gaps still to close.
LA 2028 is getting closer.
And Britain’s rowers are coming.