Greg Johnston

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Greg Johnston was a World Champion and Olympic rower.  He joined the Waikato Rowing Club and from 1978 onwards, won a total of 26 national rowing titles: ten titles in the eight, nine titles in the four, two titles in coxless pair, and five titles in coxed pair.

Johnston’s first international success came in the 1978 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro, his home training ground, when he won bronze with the New Zealand eight.  A year later, Johnston’s New Zealand eight won silver at the 1979 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia.

He was selected for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow but did not compete due to New Zealand joining the Olympic boycott.

At the 1983 World Rowing Championships in Duisburg, Germany, he was a member of the coxed four and won gold.  At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Johnston was again member of the New Zealand eight.  They entered the competition as the favourite, with their strongest competitor, East Germany, absent due to the Eastern Bloc boycott.  However, the eight finished a disappointing fourth and missed out on a medal.

At the 1986 World Rowing Championships at Nottingham in the United Kingdom, he won silver in the men’s coxed four.  At the 1986 Commonwealth Games he won a silver in the coxed four and at the 1988 Summer Olympics, he won bronze in the coxed four.