Malcolm Howard

Biography

Malcolm Howard is a double Olympic medallist. The Victoria, BC native followed up his gold-medal winning performance with the men’s eight crew at the Beijing 2008 Games by capturing silver in the same boat at the London 2012 Games.

Howard spent two years as a single sculler after the Beijing Games. He is a five-time World Championship medallist winning one gold (2007), two silver (2004, 2009) and one bronze (2011). Competing in three World Junior Championships, Howard won a bronze medal in 2001 in the coxless fours (and finished eighth in 2000 in the eight and 13^th in 1999 in coxed fours).

Born and raised in Victoria, he graduated from Harvard University where he garnered a coveted spot on the Harvard rowing team and graduated with a degree in Biology. He was undefeated against intercollegiate competition in three years as a member of Harvard’s varsity eight, helping the crew to three straight national championships.

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.

Once in Beijing, the team was described as “swaggering around” by six-time Olympic medallist Steven Redgrave, who was commentating for the BBC. That swagger was well deserved, as they won their 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.