Among the group was George Bridgewater who not only went on to win an Olympic bronze medal and a gold and two silver medals at World Rowing Championships but has since carved out a highly successful career in sports administration and business.
For George, receiving the Prime Minister’s Scholarship was a big part of keeping him in New Zealand, away from the Ivy League offers, and allowing him to follow his dream of wearing the black singlet at the Olympics.
As a member of the national junior rowing team in 2001, George received his first Prime Minister’s Scholarship, which he was to continue to receive throughout his rowing career and which resulted in firstly a Bachelor of Management Studies at Waikato, followed by a post graduate MBA at Oxford.
“Over the course of five years I was able to continue my university studies on a part time basis, allowing me to also chase my rowing dreams,” says George. “And then when I retired, the Prime Minister’s Gold Scholarship (for retired podium event athletes) provided me with partial funding to follow another dream, studying at Oxford.”
Looking back at the early days of rowing and studying, George pays tribute to then Athlete Career and Education advisor, Criss Strange, who not only knew the scholarship system but also helped and advocated for his roster of rowers to be scholarship recipients.
“We were very lucky to be part of the first generation to receive funding like this from the Government and Criss played a key role in those early days,” says George.
George’s time at Oxford was pivotal to his future career path. “I was fortunate to have exposure to a very talented group of people from all walks of life – business, politics, media as well as sports. It also opened some big doors including my first international work role with a major global financial institution.”
Since returning to New Zealand in 2014, George has applied his not inconsiderable talents, expertise and experience to a variety of roles, from sports administration as Chair of the Halberg Foundation and a board member with Snow Sports NZ, to a range of other local business interests.
“You sacrifice a lot to get to the top in the sporting world and were often required to put other things like careers and education on hold. The Prime Minister’s Scholarship provides an important mechanism to fund sports people to achieve skills and direction for life after sport.”
