Spencer Turrin

Spencer Alf Turrin (born 29 August 1991) is an Australian representative rower. He is a national champion, twice world champion, a dual Olympian and an Olympic champion. He competed and won medals in the Australian senior men's coxless four at every World Rowing Championship from 2013 to 2018, culminating in consecutive world championship gold at Sarasota 2017 and 2018 Plovdiv. He rowed in the two seat of the Australian men's coxless four to a gold medal victory at the Tokyo Olympics.

Education The youngest of four children born to Catherine and Vittore Turrin, Spencer grew up at Dungog, New South Wales and took up rowing in his high school years at Sydney's St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. He rowed in the St Joseph's First VIII and while at the college also raced competitively for the Sydney Rowing Club.

Club and national career His senior career has been with the Sydney Rowing Club since 2006.

In 2012 he contested the Australian U23 coxless four championship title at the Australian Rowing Championships in SRC colours and placed second. In 2014 and 2015 Turrin and Lloyd were acknowledged with Sydney Rowing Club's Most Outstanding Oarsman award. He rowed in ten consecutive New South Wales eights from 2013 to 2023 including the victorious crews of 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. In 2021 with his national training centre crewmates he won the Australian championship title in the coxless four.

International rowing career Turrin made his Australian representative debut in an U23 men's eight selected to contest the 2011 World Rowing U23 Championships in Amsterdam. That crew placed seventh.

In 2016 Turrin was selected with Lloyd to contest the men's coxless pair at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. They won their heat on day one of competition, progressed through a semi-final and finished fifth in their final. They took gold at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan and then raced in the Australian men's senior eight at the WRC III in Lucerne to a silver medal.

The world champion four stayed together into 2018 and started their 2018 international campaign with a gold medal win at the World Rowing Cup II in Linz, Austria. They repeated their 2017 tactic with a blistering rating of 43 strokes per minute from the start and kept it up above 40 for the rest of the race. becoming the fourth Australian men's eight to ever do so. The following week back in the coxless four, Turrin won another gold at the World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne. The eight were looking for a top five finish at the 2019 World Championships to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The eight placed second in their heat and fourth in the final and qualified for Tokyo 2020. They took gold at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan in June, won the Stewards Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in July and a week later finished second at the WRC III in Lucerne. At the 2022 World Rowing Championships at Racize, he rowed in the Australian coxless four to a silver medal. At the Rowing World Cup II in Varese, Italy they raced as Australia's M4- entrant. They made the A final and won the silver medal behind the Great Britain four. In the 2022 Australia Day Honours he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.