Emma Twigg

Emma Kimberley Twigg (born 1 March 1987) is a New Zealand rower.

Twigg was born in 1987 in Napier, New Zealand.

Her father is rowing coach Peter Twigg.

She received her secondary education at Napier Girls' High School and was head prefect in her final year.

Twigg gained a Bachelor of Communications from University of Waikato while a professional rower.

Encouraged to take up rowing by her father, Twigg started the sport in 2001 aged 14 while at Napier Girls' High School; she also joined Hawke's Bay Rowing Club, where her father is a rowing coach.

Aged 16, she won her first national titles.

She first represented New Zealand internationally at the 2003 World Rowing Junior Championships in Athens, Greece, where she was part of the junior women's eight that came sixth.

At the 2004 World Rowing Junior Championships in Banyoles, Spain, she came third with the junior women's eight in the B-final.

As rowing became more serious, she moved from Napier to Cambridge to be at the high performance centre near Lake Karapiro.

For the 2004/05 southern hemisphere summer season, Twigg switched to the single scull boat class.

At the July 2005 World Rowing U23 Championships in Amsterdam, Netherlands, she came fourth.

At the August 2005 World Rowing Junior Championships in Brandenburg, Germany, she won gold.

For the 2005/06 southern hemisphere summer season, Twigg joined the elite rowers and was part of the women's eight.

At the 2006 World Rowing Cup II in Poznań, Poland, they came second in the B-final.

At the 2006 World Rowing Cup III on the Rotsee in Switzerland, they came fifth.

At the 2006 World Rowing Championships, the team won the B-final (i.e. came seventh overall).

The following season, Twigg was back in the single scull because every other boat was already full (Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell had the double, and Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh were in the pair).

At the 2007 World Rowing U23 Championships in Glasgow, United Kingdom, she won a gold medal with three boat lengths ahead of the silver.

The win gained her entry to the elite women's team.

At the 2007 World Rowing Championships at Oberschleißheim Regatta Course near Munich, Germany, she came sixth and this gave New Zealand a qualification for this boat class at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Previous Olympic appearances were in 2008 (ninth place), 2012 (fourth place), and 2016 (fourth place).

In preparation for the 2008 Olympics, Twigg raced at all three World Rowing Cups; she came third at Cup I at Oberschleißheim Regatta Course, came fifth at Cup II at the Rotsee, and came third at Cup III in Poznań.

She could not hold onto this form for the Beijing Olympics, where she missed the A-final and came third in the B-final (or ninth overall).

Aged 21, she was the youngest New Zealand rower in Beijing and is listed as New Zealand Olympian number 1097.

In 2009, Twigg attended World Rowing Cups II and III and came second in both events.

She won the 2009 Princess Royal Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta.

At the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznań, she came in fourth place, narrowly beaten by Czech rower Miroslava Knapková for the bronze medal.

In 2010, Twigg travelled to Europe to compete in World Rowing Cups I and II, gaining a second and a seventh placement.

The 2010 World Rowing Championships were held on her home training course on Lake Karapiro near Cambridge and there she gained her first World Rowing Championship medal: a bronze.

In 2011, Twigg attended World Rowing Cups II and III and came second and first, respectively.

A single sculler, she was the 2014 world champion and won gold in her fourth Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021.

She has retired from rowing twice, first for master-level studies in Europe in 2015 and then after the 2016 Olympics, disappointed at having narrowly missed an Olympic medal for the second time.

She took 2015 off from rowing and completed a FIFA Master in Management, Law, and Humanities of Sport.

She retired from rowing after the 2016 Summer Olympics and was employed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Switzerland for two years.

After two years off the water, she started training again in 2018 and won silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.

While working at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, the idea formed to start rowing again with a view of attending the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Twigg joined fellow former IOC employee Rebecca Wardell and another rower in April 2018 to cycle from Switzerland towards Singapore for four months, but changed her mind after six weeks and flew home instead to restart training and be with her new partner.

Since her marriage in 2020, she has become an outspoken advocate for LGBT athletes.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Twigg won gold in the woman's single scull.