Giedre Rakauskaite MBE

Giedre became World Champion in the PR3 Mix4+ in 2017 and won the title again in 2019 and 2022. She won gold at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and is also a reigning European Champion in that boat class, which she won in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Giedre started rowing in 2006 in Kaunas, Lithuania. She moved to the UK in 2011, taking up residence in Worcester to study Sports Coaching Science at Worcester University where she rowed. In her final year of study, Giedre began coaching at Hereford Cathedral School, taking on the lead coaching role on graduation.

Giedre continued to row competitively at Worcester RC, winning a silver medal at the British Indoor Rowing Championships in 2015 before making the semi-finals of Senior doubles at Henley Women’s Regatta and qualifying for the new women’s doubles event at Henley Royal Regatta in 2017.

After joining the GB Para-rowing Team in 2017, she was selected for the PR3 Mixed coxed four, in which she won the World Championships. She won the event at the Worlds again in 2019. Still in that event, she won the European Championships in 2021, followed by the Paralympic Games.

In 2022 and 2023, Giedre and the PR3 Mix 4+ retained their European title, also winning the World Rowing Championships in 2022, where she and crew mate Frankie Allen doubled up to win the PR3 Women’s pair.