Rebecca Scown

Rebecca Scown (born 10 August 1983) is a Silver and Bronze Olympic medalist rower from New Zealand. Together with Genevieve Behrent, she won the silver medal in the women's coxless pair at the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the same Olympic games she doubled up to compete in New Zealand's first ever Olympic women's eight placing 4th. Previous to this with Juliette Haigh, she won the bronze medal in the women's coxless pair at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Juliette and Rebecca won gold in the women's pair at the World Rowing Cup regatta in Lucerne, 2010 and at the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro and the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled. Rebecca created history stroking the New Zealand's women's eight at the 2015 World Rowing Championships where they won the first ever silver medal for New Zealand in the event, and in doing so qualified the eight for the Olympic Games in Rio. After winning a bronze medal with the New Zealand women's eight at the 2017 World Rowing Championships, she retired from the sport.

Scown was born in Hāwera in 1983. Sonia Waddell (née Scown), a fellow competitive rower, is her cousin. Her uncle Alistair Scown (Waddell's father) is a former All Black. She completed her schooling at Wanganui Collegiate School. She participated in a number of extra-curricular activities during her schooling years, most notably rowing which she took up during her final years at Wanganui Collegiate School. Her teachers saw potential in her and allowed Scown to participate in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta for Collegiate.

Scown was accepted to the University of Otago to study both Commerce and Arts and completed her Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Bachelor of Arts in Art History before moving north to Cambridge in the Waikato to begin her career as a full-time athlete.

Since the completion of her degree, Rebecca has also achieved a postgraduate diploma in Sport Management.

During her summer holidays, Scown would go home to Wanganui and compete in the Rowing New Zealand Summer season. In 2005, which was her final year at University, she received a Rowing New Zealand trial and was named a member of the New Zealand Under-23 Women's quad scull with fellow members Bess Halley, Darnelle Timbs, and Clementine Marshall. Scown and her crew mates competed at the Under-23 World Championships in Amsterdam and won a bronze medal.

In 2006, Scown rowed for the Union Boat Club in Wanganui and the Central Regional Performance Centre, gaining a number of places at the Rowing New Zealand Championships on Lake Karapiro. She was then named as a member of the New Zealand Women's Rowing Eight to compete at the 2006 World Rowing Championships in Eton, England. The crew came in 7th.

A year later, Scown competed at the 2007 World Rowing Championships in Munich, Germany as part of the New Zealand Women's Rowing Eight. However, once again, Scown and her crew returned home empty-handed as they came in 9th.

Scown was later named as the stroke of the New Zealand Women's Eight which was sent to the Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Qualification in Poznań, Poland, however, her crew was unsuccessful in their bid to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.