Brooke Donoghue

Brooke Francis (, born 6 January 1995) is a New Zealand rower. She has twice won the world championship in the double scull alongside Olivia Loe, is the incumbent world champion, and won a silver medal in this class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with rowing partner Hannah Osborne, followed by a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Lucy Spoors. As of 2021, she has won ten premier national rowing championships.

Early life Donoghue was born in 1995 and grew up in Te Kauwhata in the Waikato. She received her secondary education at Te Kauwhata College and started rowing in 2010 while at that school.

Career Te Kauwhata College is one of the schools linked to the Mercer Rowing Club based in Mercer at the Waikato River, with Donoghue rowing for both her school and Mercer. At the February 2013 New Zealand rowing championships at Lake Ruataniwha, she won her first national medals. She came fifths in the U20 single sculls, won bronze in the U20 double scull, and silver in the U22 eight.

For the 2013/14 summer season, she changed to the Waikato Rowing Club and joined the Waikato Rowing Performance Centre. This gained her selection to the New Zealand junior women's quad and at the August 2013 World Rowing Junior Championships in Trakai, Lithuania, her team came fifth; Zoe McBride was in the boat with her. At the February 2015 New Zealand rowing championships, she won medals in all four boat classes that she competed in, including her first medals with premier women's crews. She came third with the premier women's eight and second with the premier women's quad scull. In the U22 classes, she won gold in the quad scull (the same team that competed in the premier women's quad) and won silver in the single scull. These results gained her selection to New Zealand U23 team and at the 2015 World Rowing U23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, she won silver in the double scull partnered with Claudia Hyde, beaten by the Romanian team of Viviana Iuliana Bejinariu and Ioana Vrînceanu. In March 2016, Donoghue was announced as a member of the New Zealand Rowing Team, with a seat in the women's quad (alongside Georgia Perry, Lucy Spoors, and Sarah Gray) that had yet to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics. She competed at the Final Qualification regatta at the Rotsee near Lucerne, Switzerland, in May 2016 where they failed to qualify in third place as only two boats advanced to the Olympics. She took out national titles in the double scull with Hannah Osborne and in the quad scull. For the New Zealand Rowing Team, she was paired with Loe to compete in the double scull. They then won the Stonor Challenge Trophy at the Henley Royal Regatta.

At the February 2018 New Zealand rowing championships, she competed in three premier women boat classes and she won two national titles. In the eight, she came fourth. She won national titles in the single scull and the double scull teamed with Perry. Again teamed up with Loe for international competitions, they competed at World Rowing Cups in Poland and the Netherlands, and they won gold in both races. At the 2018 World Rowing Championships, they were beaten by Milda Valčiukaitė and Ieva Adomavičiūtė from Lithuania to second place. Once again teamed up with Loe for international competitions, they won the 2019 World Rowing Cup II in Poznań, Poland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no international rowing during 2020. When New Zealand Rowing announced the female elite team later that month, Donoghue and Loe were nominated for the double scull. When the Olympic rowing team for the Tokyo Olympics got nominated in June 2021, it came as a surprise that Osborne had displaced Loe to join Donoghue in the double scull; Loe is instead going to join the quad scull. Stuffs rowing commentator Ian Anderson considers the women's double scull "to be among NZ's leading medal contenders in Tokyo". Osborne and Donoghue won their heat, placed second in the semi-final and took the silver medal in the Olympic final behind Romania. As of 2021, Donoghue has won ten Red Coats.