James Roe (rower)

James Roe MBE (born 28 March 1988) is a British adaptive rower. He was part of the mixed coxed team that won gold at both the 2011 World Rowing Championships and the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Personal life

Roe was born on 28 March 1988 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He is visually impaired.

In 2009 he graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art.

Rowing

Roe started rowing when he joined his local club at the age of 12. He competes in the legs, trunks and arms adaptive mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+) event and won a gold medal at the 2009 World Rowing Championships, alongside Vicky Hansford, David Smith, Naomi Riches and cox Rhiannon Jones. At the 2010 World Rowing Championships held at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand he won a silver medal with Smith, Riches, Ryan Chamberlain and Jones.

In 2011 he competed at the at World Rowing Championships held at Lake Bled, Bled, Slovenia. He won the gold medal in the LTAMix4+ event alongside crewmates Pam Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith and cox, Lily van den Broecke. They completed the one kilometre course in a time of three minutes, 27.10 seconds, finishing nearly five seconds ahead of runners-up Canada. The result qualified a boat for Great Britain into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The crew repeated their gold medal result at the Munich World Cup event in 2012.

Roe was selected along with Relph, Riches, Smith, and van den Broeke, to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the mixed coxed four event. The crew took gold at Eton Dorney on 2 September.

Roe was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing.