Jake Wetzel

Jake Wetzel

Medal record
Men'srowing
RepresentingCanada
Summer Olympics
	2008 Beijing	Men's eight
	2004 Athens	Coxless four
World Championships
RepresentingtheUnited States
	1999 St. Catharines	Coxed four
RepresentingCanada
	2003 Milan	Coxless four
	2007 Munich	Eight
Henley Royal Regatta
	2003Stewards' Challenge Cup	Men's four
	2007Grand Challenge Cup	Men's eight

Jacob Wetzel(born December 26, 1976) is a Canadianrower.He has represented both Canada and the United States at the World Championships and the Olympics. He was born inSaskatoon,Saskatchewan,Canada.

College years

As a teenager, Wetzel was on the Canadian Junior Cycling team; he only began rowing in the fall of 1997 at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.His success was immediate and extraordinary. His collegiate boat was undefeated and won the freshman 8 event at the 1998Intercollegiate Rowing AssociationChampionship (IRA). That summer Wetzel tried out for and made the Canadian National team in the pair event (2-) and finished seventh at the World Championships inCologne,Germany.

In 1999, 2001, and 2002 he again competed for Berkeley where he was coached bySteve Gladstone,this time in the varsity 8. All three years his boats won the IRA and were de facto national champions. In 1999 and 2001, his boats were undefeated. In 2002, his boat suffered a single loss to theUniversity of Washington,but beat Washington on several other occasions including the IRA.

International competitions

Internationally, Wetzel competed for the United States team in 1999 (Coxed Four (4+) gold medal at the World Championships in St. Catharines) and in 2000 (7th place with the Quad (4x) at the2000 Summer Olympicsin Sydney). In 1999, Wetzel was one of the principal subjects in theOutside Magazinearticle "Blood in the Water" on the difficulties and internal competition involved in trying to make a national team boat.

After a two-year pause because of a shoulder injury caused by a mountaineering accident, in 2003 Wetzel returned to the international rowing scene and he joined Team Canada. Wetzel made the coxless four (4-) and he won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships inMilan,Italy. At the2004 Summer Olympics,Wetzel's boat finished second by inches to Great Britain.

In 2005/2006 Wetzel completed an MSc in Financial Economics at theUniversity of Oxford(Linacre College/Saïd Business School). He was a member of the victorious Oxford crew in the 2006Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

He also won at the2007 World Championshipsin Canada's M8+.

He won the gold medal at the2008 Summer Olympicsin the men's eights withAndrew Byrnes,Kyle Hamilton,Malcolm Howard,Adam Kreek,Kevin Light,Ben Rutledge,Dominic Sieterleand coxBrian Price.

Wetzel announced his retirement from international rowing at the Beijing Olympics; Wetzel enrolled in the PhD programme in Finance at theUniversity of British Columbiain autumn 2008.

Wetzel was selected as the most highly decorated rower from the Pac-12 conference when he was selected as its Rower of the Century in 2016.In 2017, he became the first University of California, Berkeley rower alum to be inducted into the Cal Sports Hall of Fame as an individual.

External links

• Row Canada Bio
• Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race Link
• Outside Magazine Article