John Storey is an Olympic Rower, Businessman and PhD student who relocated to New Zealand back in 2000 after his time at St Faith’s.
John joined St Faiths in 1994, alongside his brother Richard and sister Jenny, before leaving in 2000 when his family emigrated to New Zealand. John particularly loved his trumpet lessons with Mrs McRitchie Pratt as well as extra English lessons with Mrs Roberts. John always worked hard at all his subjects but found the written word a challenge compared to figures and computers. His project of making a scaled down model of the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge was a creative highlight for him to complete.
John enjoyed school sports, and later on in his school career he played hockey and rugby for St Faith’s first team. On leaving St Faith’s he went on to study at St Andrews in Christchurch where he excelled at maths and design technology, and was then exposed to the sport of rowing during his Summer terms.
On leaving school he completed an Honours degree in mechanical engineering at Canterbury University and continued to row for New Zealand at the under 23 level, winning a gold medal in mens coxed 4. He relocated to Cambridge (North Island, New Zealand) where the elite rowers trained. John represented New Zealand in the Quadruple sculls at both the London and Rio Olympic games.
After Rio, he was selected for the Mens Double Scull and his recent European tour saw him winning, with partner Chris Harris, gold at World Cup events in Poznan and Lucerne. He was also invited to compete at the Henley Royal Regatta (see news article here), again winning the double sculls event. He was very proud to wear his St Faith’s leavers tie when receiving the cup (pictured above with his proud parents).
In his time off from rowing he has continued to study completing a masters degree and is about to continue for PhD, designing breathing apparatus for premature babies in hospitals. He is also running his own drone photography business, Altitude HD. John is currently in training for the World Championships taking place in the USA in September 2017, and has his sights set on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 after completing his studies.
