Brian Price

Biography

A veteran with the Canadian rowing team for more than a decade, coxswain Brian Price added an Olympic silver medal to his legendary resume at London 2012 with the men’s eight crew.

A three-time Olympian, Price coxed the gold-medal winning crew at Beijing 2008 and finished fifth at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where he was also coxswain for the men’s eight crew.

A three-time world champion coxswain for the men’s eight in 2002, 2003 and 2007, Price had his first international experience at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. He also coxed the eight to bronze at the 2011 World Championships and has four world championship bronze medals in the coxed pair.

After taking a break from the sport following the Beijing Games, Price returned to competition in 2011 after being a motivational speaker for two years. Now retired, Price is a cancer survivor who suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukemia as a child and his growth was stunted due to heavy chemotherapy treatment during developmental years.

Beijing 2008 Men’s Eight

The Canadian men’s eight went into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing confident, dominant and expected to win gold.

Coached by Mike Spracklen, the crew of Kevin Light, Ben Rutledge, Andrew Byrnes, Jake Wetzel, Malcolm Howard, Dominic Seiterle, Adam Kreek , Kyle Hamilton and coxswain Brian Price had consistently proven to be the best, winning the 2007 World Championship title as well as back-to-back editions of the prestigious Lucerne World Cup in 2007 and 2008.

As it was the year prior, the race strategy in Beijing was simple: win by as much as possible. Confident and not taking anything for granted, the team won its heat by more than seven seconds.

In the final, the Canadians jumped out quickly and at the 500m mark had a quarter of a boat length lead. They continued to blow away the field, extending the lead to a full boat length at the midway point. Then it was just a matter of holding off a late charge by Great Britain and the United States to claim the gold medal.

It was a victory that inspired Canadians, particularly the lasting image of the crew singing ‘O Canada’ loudly and proudly on the dock. It prompted triathlete Simon Whitfield to tape the words ‘Sing Like Kreek’ to the handlebars of his bike during his race to the silver medal in Beijing.