Heather Stanning

Major Heather Mary Stanning (born 26 January 1985) is a retired British professional rower. As a member of the Great Britain rowing team, she is a double Olympic champion, double World champion, quadruple World Cup champion and double European champion. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quad sculls.

Paired with Helen Glover in 2012, she won an Olympic gold medal, the first for their country of the 2012 Olympiad and the first ever British Olympic gold medal in women's rowing. She set the world record time in partnership with Helen Glover at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, and they retained their World title at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Lac d'Aiguebelette, France.

In 2016, they retained their European title at Brandenburg an der Havel, set the World Rowing Cup record time at Poznań and again won gold at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She was ranked the number 1 female rower in the world in 2016 and announced her retirement from rowing in November 2016.

She is a British Army officer and currently holds the rank of Major in the Royal Artillery; she was given dispensation from the army to pursue an Olympic career with the British team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Stanning was born in Yeovil, Somerset, England; her parents Timothy (Lieutenant Commander) and Mary were Royal Navy officers. She was educated at Gordonstoun, Scotland, where she was appointed head girl in her final year. Her school yearbook predicted that she would win an Olympic gold medal.

Whilst in sixth form she won a British Army scholarship and went on to study sports technology at the University of Bath, England. She started rowing in 2006 under the Team GB Start Programme. She graduated from university in 2007 before going on to Sandhurst alongside her brother, Martin, who joined the Black Watch. Another brother, Alistair, is a Royal Navy doctor.^{[citation needed]} On 18 August 2018 she announced her marriage to Jonny Howse, a British Army officer; they married at Elgin Cathedral, Scotland.

Stanning was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Artillery in August 2008, based at Larkhill Garrison on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. She held the rank of Captain and served in 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery. She was promoted to Major in December 2015 and from February 2017 resumed work full-time in the army before attending Staff College in September 2017.

In 2006 Stanning started rowing and was selected for Team GB "Start" programme where she was coached by Paul Stannard. In 2007, she partnered Olivia Whitlam to win the women's pair competition at the World Rowing U23 Championships. In 2008, she won the Remenham Challenge Cup for women's eights at the Henley Royal Regatta. In 2009, she tried out for TeamGB and joined the crew of the women's eight with Victoria Bryant, Ruth Walczak, Victoria Meyer-Laker, Monica Relph, Jaqueline Round, Leonora Kennedy, Rachael Jefferies and Zoe de Toledo. They finished seventh at the European Rowing Championships held in Brest, Belarus.