Darren Balmforth

Darren Bruce Balmforth, born in Hobart on 16 October 1972, is an Australian former lightweight rower who was a twelve-time Australian national champion, a world champion and an Olympic silver medallist. He began as a coxswain at Rose Bay High School and rowed his senior career from the Lindisfarne Rowing Club in Hobart. After a second place in the lightweight double scull at the 1994 World Rowing U23 Championships in Paris, he won his only world title in the lightweight eight at Aiguebelette in 1997, by 0.03 seconds. He then rowed in the lightweight coxless four, taking bronze in 1998 and silver in 1999, and the same crew won silver at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, beaten by the French boat by less than half a second. He received the Australian Sports Medal in 2001 and was inducted into the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame in 2010.