Anthony John Edwards (born 22 December 1972 in Ballarat, Victoria) is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a five time Olympian, triple Olympic medallist, a world champion and a six-time Australian national champion. He represented Australia at the premier world regattas consistently over a twenty-year period from 1993 to 2012.
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Club and state rowing
Edwards' senior rowing was done from the Ballarat City Rowing Club where he moved to take up sculling in 1990. He previously rowed at St. Patrick's College, Ballarat, earlier in the same year and stroked the Firsts crew to victory in the Ballarat Head of the Lake Regatta. That victory broke the 29-year drought for the school which had not won the premier event of Head of the Lake Regatta for that long. He joined Wendouree-Ballarat Club Rowing Club in 1999 moving to four-oared crews. Later in his career he relocated to Tasmania in 2006 where he rowed from the New Norfolk Rowing Club in Hobart.
Edwards was first selected to represent Victoria at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships in 1995 when he raced to a second place in the single scull contesting the President's Cup. From 1996 to 2004 and excepting 2001, Edwards represented Victoria in the men's lightweight four contesting the Penrith Cup at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships. His Victorian 1996 lightweight four was victorious. After his relocation to Tasmania he was selected in the Tasmanian lightweight four in 2010. That crew won the Penrith Cup that year.
Edwards contested national championship titles at the Australian Rowing Championships on numerous occasions. In 1991, 1992 and 1993 he won the Senior B sculling championship and 1995 and 1997 he won the National Champion Lightweight sculls for Ballarat City Rowing Club. In 2002 he won the national lightweight sculls championship in Wendouree-Ballarat colours. He won the lightweight coxless four title in an Australian selection composite crew in 2007.
International representative rowing
In 1991 Edwards won his first National Championship in the scull winning Men's Senior B (U23) Sculling championship in Adelaide. In 1992 he teamed with Tim Wise, his Ballarat City teammate to win the Champion Senior Lightweight double sculls. He also won the Men's Lightweight Senior B scull championship. As a result of this performance Edwards earned his first national representative selection at the 1992 U23 Trans Tasman regatta where he raced a double scull with Jason Tutty winning comfortably all their races in the series. The following year he made his debut Australian senior representative appearance in a lightweight quad scull which finished seventh at the 1993 World Rowing Championships in Racize. At Indianapolis 1994 he again raced in the lightweight quad. That crew made the A final and finished fifth.
For the 1995 World Rowing Championships in Tampere, Edwards raced a lightweight double scull with veteran lightweight Bruce Hick to a bronze medal. They stayed together into the 1996 Olympic year, the first time lightweight events were introduced to the Olympic regatta. With their great technical proficiency Hick and Edwards were selected again in the double scull and were expected to medal. They won their heat and placed second in their semi to make the A final. The Swiss brothers Michael and Markus Gier were favourites and Hick and Edwards placed third, winning bronze in the final, being beaten out by 0.21 seconds by the Dutch crew for silver. This medal was won when he was competing for Ballarat City Rowing Club and was the first Olympic representation and medal awarded to a Ballarat City member in the club's 125-year history.
In 1997 Edwards remained in the Australian lightweight double scull now paired with Queensland's Gary Lynagh. They raced at two Rowing World Cups in Europe before contesting the 1997 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France where they finished fifth.
In 1998 the Australian selectors switched Edwards to sweep-oared representative crews and he raced at two World Rowing Cups in Europe and at the 1998 World Rowing Championships in the lightweight coxless four. They won the bronze medal at Cologne 1998. He remained in that combination with Darren Balmforth, Bob Richards and stroked by the Tasmanian lightweight champion Simon Burgess into 1999. They finished in fifth place at St Catharines 1999.
Post-rowing
Edwards currently is the Head of Rowing for The Friends' School in Hobart, Tasmania. He previously worked for the State Development Officer for Rowing Tasmania, and has extensive involvement in the selection of Tasmanian state crews. In 2010 he was inducted as a member of the Rowing Victoria Hall of Fame.
Rowing Palmares
Olympics
1996 Atlanta Olympics LM2x bow – bronze
2000 Sydney Olympics LM4- two seat – silver
2004 Athens Olympics LM4- two seat – silver
2008 Beijing Olympics LM4- two seat – ninth
2012 London Olympics LM4- two seat – fourth