Olympic rowing champion Andy Holmes dies aged 51
Andy Holmes MBE, the former pairs partner of Sir Steve Redgrave, with whom he won gold and bronze medals in the coxed and coxless pairs at the Seoul Olympics, died last night in King's College Hospital.
Olympic champions: Andy Holmes was part of Britain's four-oared rowing team who won gold at the LA Games in 1984 Photo: ANDY HOOPER
Holmes, who had been coaching crews during the last two years after a recent return to the sport, was taken ill last Monday, four days before his 51st birthday, of what is thought highly likely to be leptospirosis, also called Weil's disease.
The bacterial infection is rare, but notorious amongst watersport athletes, because it can be caught through contact with river- or lake-water containing the urine of infected animals. Holmes was responding to treatment for the disease, but his liver and kidneys were affected.
He died on the evening of Sunday 24th October, in intensive care.
Holmes started rowing aged 12 at Latymer Upper School, and quickly discovered a natural talent for the sport, coached by Olympic silver medallist Jim Clark.
After school he joined Leander Club, and at the age of 19 won the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
Two years later he reached his first world championships final, coming fifth in the coxed fours, but after leading the race for more than half the course. By 1984 Holmes was one of Britain's top athletes, and a natural choice when a new coxed four was being put together for the Olympics.
The Los Angeles Games is the foundation on which Britain's current success in rowing is founded. When the quartet of Steve Redgrave, Andy Holmes, Richard Budgett and Martin Cross, coxed by Adrian Ellison, sat on the start of the Lake Casitas course, it was 36 years since any Briton had won an Olympic rowing gold medal.
Less than seven minutes later the five had rowed back through the Americans to become champions, and the inspiration of a generation. In 1986 Holmes and Redgrave won the Commonwealth coxless pairs title in Strathclyde at the last regatta to be an official part of those Games, adding another gold in the coxed fours.
Later that summer they beat the Abbagnale brothers to win a world title in the coxed pairs at Nottingham, steered by Patrick Sweeney. They doubled up in the coxed and coxless pairs the next year, winning silver and gold, and did the same for the Seoul Olympics in 1988, where they won gold in the coxless and bronze the next day in the coxed event.
When Holmes retired and built up his own removals business, he made a clean break with rowing, but a few years ago he became interested in it again, persuaded into coaching by some former rowing friends, while his daughter Aimee, now 22, also took up the sport.
He became Director of rowing at both Furnivall Sculling Club, in Hammersmith, and the new Langley Academy, which trains on the 2012 Olympic lake at Dorney, near Eton.
Last month he had a baby daughter, named Parker, with his second wife Gabrielle. His first wife and four other children also survive him.
The 2010 world rowing championships start in New Zealand on Sunday October 31. Holmes' former crewmates Martin Cross and Sir Steve Redgrave will be at the event on Lake Karapiro, commentating for the BBC.
Holmes started rowing aged 12 at Latymer Upper School, and quickly discovered a natural talent for the sport, coached by Olympic silver medallist Jim Clark.
After school he joined Leander Club, and at the age of 19 won the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
Two years later he reached his first world championships final, coming fifth in the coxed fours, but after leading the race for more than half the course. By 1984 Holmes was one of Britain's top athletes, and a natural choice when a new coxed four was being put together for the Olympics.
The Los Angeles Games is the foundation on which Britain's current success in rowing is founded. When the quartet of Steve Redgrave, Andy Holmes, Richard Budgett and Martin Cross, coxed by Adrian Ellison, sat on the start of the Lake Casitas course, it was 36 years since any Briton had won an Olympic rowing gold medal.
Less than seven minutes later the five had rowed back through the Americans to become champions, and the inspiration of a generation. In 1986 Holmes and Redgrave won the Commonwealth coxless pairs title in Strathclyde at the last regatta to be an official part of those Games, adding another gold in the coxed fours.
Later that summer they beat the Abbagnale brothers to win a world title in the coxed pairs at Nottingham, steered by Patrick Sweeney. They doubled up in the coxed and coxless pairs the next year, winning silver and gold, and did the same for the Seoul Olympics in 1988, where they won gold in the coxless and bronze the next day in the coxed event.
When Holmes retired and built up his own removals business, he made a clean break with rowing, but a few years ago he became interested in it again, persuaded into coaching by some former rowing friends, while his daughter Aimee, now 22, also took up the sport.
He became Director of rowing at both Furnivall Sculling Club, in Hammersmith, and the new Langley Academy, which trains on the 2012 Olympic lake at Dorney, near Eton.
Last month he had a baby daughter, named Parker, with his second wife Gabrielle. His first wife and four other children also survive him.
The 2010 world rowing championships start in New Zealand on Sunday October 31. Holmes' former crewmates Martin Cross and Sir Steve Redgrave will be at the event on Lake Karapiro, commentating for the BBC.
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