2024 Distinguished Alumni Recipient - Dan Williamson

Daniel Williamson is a professional athlete at Rowing New Zealand. He grew up in Beachlands and attended Howick College from 2013 to 2015. A member of Bell House, he was an keen athlete, playing football for the college as a junior. In 2013 he and the U13 Boys Football team won the U15 ASS Eastern Zone B Division.

In 2014, Dan’s rapid growth surge (he is now 6’ 6” tall) resulted in chronic shin splints. Upon receiving the challenging news from doctors that he could no longer run, a Howick College parent and family friend, Raechel Cummins, suggested rowing as an alternative and offered to be his coach. This marked not only the beginning of Dan’s rowing career but also the start of rowing as a sport at Howick College.

Discovering a passion for his newfound sport, Daniel competed for both Howick College and the Counties Manukau Rowing Club in his novice year. At the 2015 Aon Maadi Cup Regatta, Dan was not only the proud team flag bearer, but the sole member of the Howick College rowing team. In a remarkable performance, he took 5th place in the U16 Single Sculls event, earning himself the 2015 Howick College MVP Award for rowing.

In order to be part of a more established rowing programme, Dan transitioned to King’s College at the end of 2015. In his final two years of high school, he and his crewmates won four gold and 2 bronze medals at the Aon Maadi Cup, including gold in the coveted U18 Pair while he and his partner were only 16 years old.

In 2017, Dan was selected for the New Zealand Junior Team to compete in the Junior Men’s Coxless Four at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Lithuania, where he and his team gained a silver medal. After finishing high school, he joined the Auckland Rowing Performance Centre (ARPC), where he gained direct selection into the New Zealand U23 team to compete at the 2018 World Rowing U23 Championships in Poland, bringing home a bronze medal in the Men’s Four.

In 2019, Dan was awarded a scholarship to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he joined the top Varsity Eight crew. As the first ever first-year oarsman to sit in the stroke seat, Dan led his team to an International Rowing Association National University Championship victory that year. After returning to NZ in 2020 due to Covid-19, Dan joined the newly formed New Zealand Elite Development Team.

At the 2021 New Zealand Rowing Championship, Dan won a silver medal in the men’s premier pair for the ARPC. He then captained his Eight team to a silver medal in the Men’s Premier Eight event. In May 2021, Dan qualified to join the Men’s Eight team to compete at the 2020 Olympics (held in July 2021 due to Covid-19), where he and his team won the gold medal in an exhilarating final.

Returning to Yale University in 2022, Dan and his Varsity Eight team placed second at the IRA National Championship as well as winning the team points trophy for the first time. In 2023 Dan completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in astronomy. In the same year, he was also awarded the William Neely Mallory Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior male at Yale University. The Mallory Award is presented to the senior man who, on the field of play and in life, best represents the highest ideals of sportsmanship and the esteemed Yale tradition.

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