The power of sport to transform lives

“I remember sitting on the start line thinking, here I am. I can't believe I'm in the final of a World Championship. The worst I can do is come sixth in the world.”

World champion rower Annamarie Phelps CBE is Vice Chair of the British Olympic Association, Chair of the Safeguarding Adults in Sport Strategic Partnership and an advocate for safe and inclusive sport for all. Former Chairman of British Rowing and Vice Chair of the British Paralympic Association, she helped steer both organisations through considerable change.

Phelps was Lead Safeguarding Officer for British Rowing for 11 years, and oversaw the anti-doping and equality policies within the National Governing Body. She was the first female board member of The Boat Race Company Ltd, and worked with universities, sponsors and men’s clubs to bring the Women’s University Boat Race to the Tideway in 2015. She is now Co-chair of International Working Group (IWG) on Women & Sport - IWG is the largest global network of government and non-governmental organisations committed to improving gender equality in sport and is being hosted in the UK for the next four years. 

Phelps studied Geography at the University of Cambridge and learnt to row in the Lady Margaret Boat Club at St John’s, she became World Rowing Champion in 1993 and she competed in the 1996 Olympic Games. In 2017 she was named as one of the top 20 most influential women in British Sport. She is an alumna and Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge.

She is also the first guest to be featured on Souvient, the Cambridge Podcast from St John’s College. Heather Hancock, Master of St John’s, is the host of the podcast that will bring listeners stories to intrigue, inform and inspire.

Souvient is taken from Souvent me Souvient, the medieval French motto of St John’s College founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the matriarch of the Tudor dynasty. Souvent me Souvient, usually translated as ‘I often remember’, or ‘remember me often’ and is illustrated with little forget-me-not blue flowers.

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