Back in May, Warwick’s Harriet Hudson and her fellow rower Amanda Bateman showed the world just what they could do, finishing agonisingly close to a gold medal in the women’s double sculls at the World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The 26-year-old had to be content with a silver medal but the duo had led in the third 500 metres of the event and then finished just 0.78 seconds behind the crew from the United States with Norway in third.
It was tantalizingly close to gold for the pair and a nice way to lead up to this month’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Hudson is no stranger to the Olympic dais with a bronze medal already in her keeping from the rescheduled Tokyo Games where she rowed with Rowena Meredith, Caitlin Cronin, and Ria Thompson in the Women’s Quadruple Scull.
That race was won by the Chinese with Poland second in what was a tight tussle, with a nail-biting sprint to bronze at the very end between Australia and Italy.
The Warwick athlete rowed in the third seat of the Australian quad back then, the team placing fourth in the women’s sculls qualifier on Friday 23 July and first in the repechage on Sunday 25 July to qualify for the A final. The quad had won gold at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May this year, and trained in Rockhampton in the lead-up to Tokyo.
After her bronze Hudson was presented with a certificate of recognition by the Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC).
Then Mayor Vic Pennisi saying the certificate recognised “the wonderful pride she has brought to the community.”
Pennisi said he felt privileged to present the certificate to her and told her she “can’t underestimate what you do to communities when there’s performances like (yours) “.
“It really breathes that air of hope into people and their pride of community and we’re really grateful for your contribution and what you’ve done. “
At the time the mayor said that if Hudson won a gold, she’d get the key to the city.
She said she’d try.
It’s been a long journey to Paris for Hudson, whose parents still live and work in Warwick. She attended Sommerville House boarding school in Brisbane – which is where she learned to row and developed a love for the sport.
A member of Sydney Rowing Club, she has been juggling her rowing commitments with a degree in Occupational Therapy at Sydney University after moving to the city in 2016.
The talented rower has been slowly but surely building a strong reputation on the world stage debuting in 2016 at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Rotterdam. She finished sixth there in the A-Final of the Junior Women’s Single Scull.
She has represented her country on numerous occasions since.
She was part of the silver medal winning Under 23 Women’s Quadruple Scull crew at the World Rowing U23 titles in Bulgaria in 2017 before switching to the double sculls. She finished fifth Women’s Double A-Final of the U23s with Ria Thompson in 2018, taking silver with Giorgia Patten the following year when the U23s were held in Sarasota, USA.
And now the young women who in 2011, as a 13-year-old, told the media that she wanted to represent Australia in rowing one day is ready to compete in her second Olympics.
