Emily Craig: “People who have won the Olympics are just normal people who took their hobbies way too far”

Fergus Mainland caught up with the Olympic Champion hoping to inspire the next generation at Henley Women’s Regatta

For Emily Craig, the 2025 edition of Henley Women’s Regatta is a bit of a full-circle moment. In 2013, whilst rowing for the University of London BC, Emily was part of a composite crew that won Elite Lightweight Women’s Quads. The prizegiver that year was Dame Katherine Grainger. Fast forward two years and the two of them would be training together in the Great Britain Rowing team, a real ‘pinch me moment’.

As a Henley Women’s Regatta ambassador, and this year’s prizegiver, it’s important for Emily that athletes of all abilities have the power to achieve whatever they want to in the sport.

“For me, the most important thing about being around the regatta and doing the prizegiving is that people can see that people who have won the Olympics and been in the team are normal people who took their hobbies way too far,” explained the four-time HWR champion.

“We’re not superhuman and we’ve not got anything that a lot of other people racing the regatta don’t also have.

“There will be a lot of talking to partners and sponsors but for me, the most important thing is being a presence at the regatta and helping out with the volunteers and doing whatever I’m told to do! If that’s helping people boat then I’ll be on the pontoons helping people boat because that’s where I’m needed but generally helping around and enjoying the sunshine.”

For Emily, the ability to race across the lightweight categories was a catalyst for her career. One of the great appeals of the regatta is that it offers an event for all women, from juniors to lightweights, to sculling or sweep. HWR is the premier event for women of all abilities.

Having rowed for Bewl Bridge RC since she was 12, Emily’s first raced down the famous course in 2010. In her own words, they lost by quite a lot in the first round but her coach’s words stuck with her through the next season.

“My second HWR was the following year with Fran Rawlins and that was the first time I’d ever raced as a lightweight and we ended up winning Senior Lightweight Women’s Doubles.

“I think it was quite a big point in my career in that I spent quite a lot of time as a junior being told ‘Oh, don’t worry, one day you can race as a lightweight against girls your size.’ That day finally came with HWR. I raced girls my size and we won so it was definitely the start of my belief that I could be successful as a lightweight.”

Emily would go on to have a spectacular 2013 regatta, winning Lightweight and Championship Quadruple Sculls, followed in 2015 with victory in Lightweight Double Sculls with Ruth Walzack.

Since then, she’s won two European titles, three World Championships, and was crowned Olympic Champion at last summer’s Olympic Games with Imogen Grant. The pair of them also hold the world’s best time, having clocked 6:40.47 at World Cup II in Varese back in 2023.

Back in 2013, Dame Katherine Grainger was one year on from winning one of the most memorable gold medals of London 2012. In 2025, Emily will stand in the same place after putting together the race of a lifetime in Paris. She returns to HWR, built by women, for women with the goal of inspiring the next generation to go out and achieve their dreams.

“It’s such an important part of women’s sport to help girls continue training and being involved with the sport all the way through university and taking it on into later life and I think that’s really invaluable.

Emily’s advice for competitors this weekend?

“Have a really solid race plan. Practice going down the course, make sure you know where your marker points are and race to the line. You never know what’s going to happen.

“It’s certainly a regatta where anything can happen and that’s the beauty of it. You can’t predict the unpredictable with it and you’ve always got to keep going all the way down the track.”

Henley Women’s Regatta takes place 20-22 June and you can follow all the action here.