Where is she now? Rebecca Scown

Standing on the lawn of Buckingham Palace while attending one of the annual garden parties hosted by the Royal Family, Rebecca Scown is a world away from growing up on a Taranaki dairy farm and spending countless cold, foggy mornings on Lake Karapiro.
Following her retirement from rowing, the double-Olympic medallist is now living in London and forging an impactful next chapter in her life.
She’s the CEO of not-for-profit organisation Youth Experience in Sport (YES), which saw her recognised as a finalist in the UK New Zealander of the Year Awards this year.
She’s also become something of an ambassador for Aotearoa in the UK, even attending the King’s coronation with Richie McCaw and Willie Apiata.
Now that Scown lives in the city where she and Juliette Haigh secured bronze in the coxless pair at the 2012 London Olympics, the memories of that day and that campaign are never far away.
With the Paris Games now over, after more success for our Kiwi women rowers, Scown reflects on stepping away from the sport that gave her so much, and how she’s trying to pay that forward – keeping at-risk youth on the right path through sport.
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Scown, now 41, retired from rowing at the end of 2017, after 12 years of competitive rowing behind her. She had two world championship titles to her name, and was part of the first New Zealand women’s eight crew to medal at a world champs and qualify the boat for an Olympics.
But she wasn’t entirely certain what her future held. Some travel, certainly, but in terms of next steps in her career, it was a big unknown.
“I felt a bit limited in New Zealand because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” shares Scown, who grew up in the Taranaki town of Hawera.
“For me it wasn’t just the career I was after, but I wanted the shift from living a quiet life in Cambridge as an athlete, which was perfect at the time, to a place where there was lots going on to make up for a bit of lost time.
“It makes it easier to move on from being an athlete, because you can’t look back when there’s so much happening.”
After spending a gap year in the UK when she was younger, and her familiarity with London from competing in the Olympics, World Cups and the famous Henley Royal regatta, Scown knew it was where she wanted to end up.
An opportunity soon presented itself in the form of Tony Mallin, founder and chairman of YES, who was awarded an MBE in the UK for his services to young people through sport.
“I knew Tony through rowing connections, and he gave me a huge opportunity and quite a lifeline,” says Scown.
“I knew I wanted to be back in the UK and stay involved in sport. So when I met Tony and heard about the charity, it all came together.”
The origins of YES date back to 1986 when the Greater London Council was disbanded – and with it the range of opportunities afforded to young people in the East End.
In order to fill the void that the new Borough of Hackney couldn’t fill, Mallin and other members of the Lea Rowing Club were spurred to start the YES charity. Initially its focus was solely on projects centred around junior rowing, but as the years passed, sporting opportunities failed to materialise elsewhere in the area and the number of young people not involved in sport continued to climb.
So in 2007, YES widened the scope of its mission and engaged with a range of sports clubs in disadvantaged areas of the capital city. Their focus today is to use the vehicle of sport to help keep at-risk young people on the right path.
Understandably, launching straight into a CEO role off the back of a sporting career was no mean feat. But never one to shy from a challenge, Scown took it head-on and is relishing the development personally and professionally.
“There were about 10 months from when I started [until] the pandemic hit, and it was a tough period because I run the charity solely, and I didn’t have a network like I do now,” Scown recalls.
“When I arrived, it was trustees giving money to projects, so I had to figure out how to make them self-sustaining and with the most opportunities.
“I didn’t know London very well and didn’t have any contacts, so I had to use a bit of the athlete mentality of sticking at it and trying to be resourceful.”
Having uprooted her life permanently to the other side of world and changing career direction, a pandemic certainly wasn’t on her bingo card.
Furloughed from her role for 13 months, it prompted Scown to step back and take stock of life while pedalling around the eerily quiet London streets.
“I almost reverted back to an athlete lifestyle. I bought a bike and met a whole heap of people through cycling which widened my network a lot,” Scown explains.
“I also had a lot of time to think about the charity. So when it came to starting work again I was in a much better place and had a bit more direction about where I wanted to take it.
“Since then, I’ve really enjoyed my job and it’s starting to come together nicely. It’s also really nice to have gone from being a selfish athlete where it’s all about me, to now creating opportunities for young people.”
On the other side of numerous Covid-19 enforced lockdowns, Scown and YES are still trying to make up for lost time and reverse the declining trend that isolation had on young people’s activity levels.
“Kids have gone through a lot of social isolation so they became quite disengaged, and without being able to run around it leads to other problems,” Scown says.
“These clubs are now in more need than ever, and charities like us are now more needed than ever because councils don’t have much money to provide the opportunities.
“It’s a huge struggle for clubs because there’s less funding now and less grants available to them, so it’s all about trying to find the most efficient ways to engage with the most young people. Sport is the most effective way to keep these young people positive about life and their aspirations.”
While the mission to enhance the physical activity levels of younger generations is global, Scown explains that it’s a very different challenge achieving this in central London than it is in the wide-open green spaces of New Zealand.
“We’re so lucky in New Zealand that sport is such a big part of schools and kids’ lives, whereas here you have to find sport elsewhere,” Scown says.
“If you don’t have a parent or two parents who support you in wanting to play sport, it makes it even harder. Play spaces over here are like gold, and cost a fortune to use, so I think New Zealand is really lucky in how great the overall access to facilities and equipment is.”
Her work in the community, coupled with her stellar rowing exploits, mean Scown is also starting to clock-up quite the highlights reel of events and commitments as an ambassador of Aotearoa.
After finding herself sitting in Westminster Abbey as part of the Kiwi delegation for the coronation of King Charles III last year, and in attendance at the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle the following day, she was back among royalty earlier in May – this time at a garden party behind palace walls.
“The King walked up one side of the crowd, and the Queen walked up the other side,” Scown recalls. “Camilla and I got to have a chat, and she asked where I’d come from today and I said that I was from New Zealand but today I’d just come from Putney.”
And how would young Rebecca feel if she knew she would be brushing shoulders with royalty?
“I think she’d be quite surprised,” Scown laughs. “I’m surprised now sometimes, too. I don’t quite know how I’ve ended up doing these things.
“But young Rebecca would definitely be pleased!”
After winning her Olympic bronze medal in the coxless pair in London, followed by a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics with Genevieve Behrent, Rebecca hung up her oars. Was there ever a part of her that might have been lured back for a tilt at Olympic gold in Tokyo?
“No, I was happy,” Scown admits. “I don’t think anything in my life would have changed if I had a gold medal – two medals was enough for me and I’ve been so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had as a result of those.
“I got to row with amazing people in some amazing places all over the world. Any more time going back to chase a gold medal would have sacrificed more time away from being able to do what I am now.”
Seeing her former teammates locked away in a Covid-19 enforced bubble during the Tokyo Olympics – delayed a year to 2021 – reassured Scown she’d made the right decision.
“I was actually relieved that I’d had my time as an Olympic athlete in the years that I did,” she says.
“For me the Olympics were such an amazing experience, not just in terms of the competition and achieving my ultimate goals, but everything else around it. I finished on Day Three at London and Day Five in Rio, so the rest of my time was a bit of a party – and a pretty good one too.
“So I felt really sorry for the athletes who missed out on that in Tokyo, because my experience in London made me row for another four years to Rio.”
Scown was proud of the women’s eight and the women’s pair, having been a part of those squads.
“The women’s eight was a boat that I was part of to help qualify for that Olympics, so I was so pleased the girls were able to take that boat on and medal,” she says. “Obviously the pair is a boat we love and have a strong history of performing well in so was pleased for them too.”
She was proud again watching the success of the New Zealand women in Paris earlier this month.
“Across the board their racing was strong, well executed and determined,” Scown says.
“They left nothing out there and had their best races so I couldn’t be happier for them. I just had an amazing time watching and cheering them on.”