David Watts

David Watts (born 5 February 1992) is an Australian rower. A national champion and national representative, he is a 2016 Olympian and won silver medals at the 2015 and 2018 World Rowing Championships.

School, club and state rowing Watts was born in England before moving to Perth, Western Australia. As a child he was a successful state swimmer and a young member of a teenage squad which swam across the arduous English Channel establishing himself as a determined, young athlete, aged 13 years. He moved to the sport of rowing after being identified as a talented athlete by the Western Australian Institute of Sport's Talent Identification Program. He attended a public school, Churchlands SHS then Trinity College, Perth for year 12 . He was a welcome member of their champion 1st VIII of 2009. and later the Sydney Rowing Club when he moved east for national representation.

From 2007 until the present, Watts has won numerous National medals in various boats, both sweep and sculling. He has rowed regularly in Western Australian men's senior eights contesting the King's Cup at the Australian Rowing Championships.

International rowing career Watts made a number of underage appearances for Australia – at the 2008 and 2010 Junior World Rowing Championships; the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics as one of only two, Australian male rowers selected and the 2012 and 2014 World Rowing U23 Championships, winning three bronze medals, including one at the Youth Olympics, Singapore. qualifying the quad for the Rio Olympics.

In 2016 Watts was selected to stroke Australia's double scull at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Chris Morgan, successfully winning the B final in an extremely competitive boat class.

In 2017 Watts rowed Australia's double scull with Luke Letcher at two World Rowing Cups in Europe and then at the 2017 World Rowing Championships where they finished in a disappointing seventeenth place.

In 2019 he was selected with Alex Purnell, Antill and Girdlestone to row Australia's quad scull for the 2019 international season. They placed 2nd at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and 4th at WRC III in Rotterdam. The quad were looking for a top eight finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. They won their heat and placed third in the semi-final, thereby qualifying the boat for the A-final and the Olympics in Tokyo 2020.

Watts is one of Australia's top scullers who stroked two quad sculls towards Olympic qualification, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020/21. His leadership skills were observed and encouraged by Rowing Australia and he is a member of their Ambassador program and Athlete's Commission 2020/21.