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The GB Rowing Team is the high performance arm of British Rowing. Rowing is the nation’s most continuously successful Olympic sport, having won a gold medal in every Olympic Games since 1984, and has won six Paralympic golds since the sport was introduced to the Paralympic Games programme in 2008.
GB Rowing Team
Rower // Lightweight Men's Squad Date of Birth: 2nd Feb 1984 (36 years old) Club: Leander Club Height: 178.00 Hometown: Chester
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Lightweight rower Chris Bartley competed at his second Olympic Games in 2016, having won a silver medal at his first one.
Chris Bartley was part of the lightweight men’s four that missed out on gold by less than a second during a dramatic final at London 2012 and raced in the same boat in Rio four years later.
An ever-present in the four since 2009 and World Champion in 2010, Bartley is one of the most experienced rowers in a highly-competitive lightweight men’s squad.
A former World Champion at senior and U23 level, Chris was a silver-medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games
©Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images
2016
European Silver Medallist Lightweight Men's Four
2014
World Bronze Medallist Lightweight Men's Four
2013
2012
Olympic Silver Medallist Lightweight Men's Four
2011
2010
World Champion Lightweight Men's Four
2007
World Bronze Medallist Lightweight Men's Quadruple Scull
2006
World U23 Champion Lightweight Men's Pair
2005
World U23 Silver Medallist Lightweight Men's Quadruple Scull
After a tough winter of training and trialing, Chris was once again selected alongside Mark Aldred, Jono Clegg and Peter Chambers in the lightweight men’s four for the 2016 season. They made an impressive start, finishing runners-up to the World Champions from Switzerland at the European Championships in Brandenburg. The GB four then finished fifth at the World Cup in Lucerne but returned to the podium at the Poznan World Cup after winning bronze.
The four were runners-up in their opening heat at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games but had to settle for fourth place in the semi-final. They ended the regatta on a strong note, though, by winning the B final to finish seventh overall.
Chris and the lightweight four had a challenging 2015, finishing ninth at the World Championships, but achieved their main objective by qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
In a season where different combinations were tested, Chris and Mark Aldred were the only rowers to race in all four international regattas. After fourth-place finishes at the European Championships in Poznan and World Cup in Varese, they missed out on the A final in Lucerne but won an exciting B final after an excellent race for the line with Spain.
Chris started the Rio Olympiad by winning bronze with the four at the 2013 World Championships in Chungju, having earlier claimed World Cup silver and bronze in Sydney and Eton respectively.
The 2014 season saw Chris and Mark joined in the lightweight four by the Chambers brothers, Richard and Peter. After winning a hard-fought silver at the European Championships, third-placed finishes followed at the World Cups in Aiguebelette and Lucerne before another bronze was secured in a competitive World Championships final in Amsterdam.
Chris, having enjoyed a successful rise through the junior and U23 ranks, moved into the Olympic-class lightweight men’s four in 2009 and reached the A final in all three World Cup regattas but had to settle for 13th place at the World Championships.
However, there was a massive turnaround in fortunes in 2010 as Chris, Richard Chambers, Paul Mattick and Rob Williams enjoyed an exceptional season. After winning two World Cup golds and a silver, Chris secured the first World title of his career in a dramatic final in New Zealand where just eight-hundredths of a second separated the top three.
The same four came from sixth to win bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Bled, having won World Cup gold and bronze in Lucerne and Munich respectively.
Chris, Richard and Rob were joined by Peter Chambers for the 2012 season. They won silver in Belgrade and bronze in Lucerne before finishing the World Cup series with gold in Munich. An extremely close Olympic final at Eton Dorney saw the GB four finish just two-tenths of a second behind South Africa but hold off Denmark to secure silver.
Chris earned his first GB Rowing Team vest as a junior in the Coupe de la Jeunesse.
During his first year of U23 trialing in 2005, he stroked a lightweight men’s quad featuring Richard Chambers to a silver medal in Amsterdam.
Chris and Richard forged an impressive lightweight pair partnership in 2006, winning gold at the World U23 Championships in Hazewinkel. That earned them selection for the senior World Championships at Eton Dorney, where they finished a solid sixth.
After winning bronze in the lightweight quad at the 2007 World Championships, Chris returned to the pair for 2008 and finished 12th at the non-Olympic World Championships in Linz-Ottensheim.
Club: Leander Club Boat: Lightweight Men’s Squad Role: Rower Coaches: Rob Morgan Learnt to Row: King’s School, Chester Original Club(s): King’s School Chester Rowing Club Original Coach(es): Neville Orme, Matthew Hackett
Chris – who started rowing aged 14 at King’s School, Chester – is the assistant rowing coach at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in Marlow and enjoys photography, working freelance at times.
Cycling is also a passion – his ideal job outside of rowing would be bike mechanic for a pro-cycling team and he has huge respect for Jens Voigt, the recently-retired professional road cyclist. “Jens always put on a great show during racing while remaining a great role model for young athletes.” A year’s subscription to Cycle Sport magazine would be one of Chris’s three items for a desert island, along with an iPod and his cat, Florence.
Bradley Wiggins would be among his ideal dinner party guests, along with Billy Connolly and Kurt Cobain. His music choice for training is “any kind of metal, the louder the better!”
Chris can spin a basketball on his finger “like a pro”.
Chris is Lottery funded through UK Sport.
