Twin sisters, both Ph D students at Oxford and Cambridge, will go head-to-head for the first time in the 2024 Boat Race, each rowing for rival universities.
Catherine and Gemma King, 24, have spent most of their rowing careers side by side since they started the sport at age 12. Both have also competed together in the Gemini Boat Race representing Cambridge since 2018.
This year is different though – Catherine has switched to Oxford to begin her Ph D while Gemma continues her studies at Cambridge. As a result, they’ll be racing against each other on March 30 in the 78th women’s Boat Race wearing opposing team colours.
“We are both very competitive and we obviously want to win, but at the end of the day the Boat Race is so much more than who wins or who loses,” Gemma, who’s studying stem cell biology, told PA news agency.
Catherine and Gemma are excited about their teams competing against each other on March 30 (Tim Bekir/British Heart Foundation/PA)
“No matter what happens, I’m going to be really proud to be racing for Cambridge and proud of Catherine for racing for Oxford – but obviously we’d like to win.
“We all train so hard all year, so to see that hard work pay off is really special.”
Catherine, who’s doing cardiovascular science, said: “I’m really looking forward to this year’s Boat Race. It’s been an exciting time joining the Oxford team.
“The Boat Race is an amazing event to be part of and I can’t wait to see how we do on race day.”
Even though their teams face off directly, it looks like they won’t actually race wheel-to-wheel as Gemma will row in Cambridge’s first boat while Catherine will row second boat for Oxford after taking some time off due to injury.
The sisters come from Bagshot, Surrey. Their parents Mike and Liz plan on supporting both sides-possibly even rocking half-and-half hats or shirts showing both light blue and dark blue colours.
“They’ve actually joked about getting half-and-half hats but I think at this point it might be more than a joke,” Catherine said.
“They’ll definitely be supporting us both and they come and watch every race.”
The twins started rowing when they were just 12 years old. Since then it has become a big part of their lives.
“We got into rowing together and because we’re both pretty competitive-not just with each other but personally too-we pushed one another to get better,” Catherine explained.
Gemma added: “We’re always very honest with each other; we tell each other what we’re messing up.”
“We’ve managed to do things people didn’t expect when we rowed together.”
This year The Boat Race Company Limited (BRCL) partnered up with British Heart Foundation as its official charity partner. That means a lot to Catherine because her Ph D funding comes fully from them-it kinda combines two things she loves deeply.”
The partnership feels extra meaningful following last year’s passing of BRCL former chair Tim Senior from cardiac arrest in 2023.”
If you want more info check out: bhf. org. uk/rowingchallenge.”
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