2000
Fred Scarlett, Olympic Gold Medallist.
Frances Houghton, youngest member of Olympic team

Fred Scarlett, the first ever OKS to win an Olympic Gold.
 
The Great Britain Olympic eight, Fred Scarlett, in the seven seat, steals a glance at the Italians. The first gold in eights for Great Britain since 1912.
  
The start of the Olympic Final, the strokes that decided Olympic Gold, Fred Scarlett in the seven seat.
Frances Houghton, the youngest member of the Great Britain Olympic rowing team, in the bow seat of the double scull  
Pilgrim wins first Olympic GOLD for King’s
Former King's School, Canterbury schoolboy Fred Scarlett won an Olympic gold medal for Great Britain rowing in the Men's VIII. In a gripping race, Great Britain led from the start and forced Australia into second place, winning Great Britain's first gold medal in this event since 1912.

Fred Scarlett (25) started his rowing career at The King's School, where he was Captain of Boats in his final year. He has represented Great Britain at Junior and Under 23 levels, and won the gold medal at the World University Championships in 1998 in a coxless pair. He went on to win the silver medal in the VIII’s at the 1999 World Championship in an exceptionally exciting race against the USA - Great Britain's first silver medal in the VIII’s at the World Championship for over 20 years. The Great Britain VIII has raced with great confidence this year, taking the World Cup title in Lucerne, where it beat the Australian VIII by 0.02sec.

Fred, whose family home is in Wye and whose father rowed in the 1962 Boat Race for Oxford, was rowing at no.7 in the Men's VIII. He has been training with the squad since leaving Oxford Brookes University, where as part of their very successful boat club he won his two Henley Royal Regatta medals. He has been sponsored by the National Lottery Fund.

Tim Parker, Head of Rowing at King's, said: "Fred showed huge commitment, determination and passion in his rowing at King's. Passion was what the Great Britain coach asked for in the Olympic final, and that was what Fred and the rest of the crew delivered. I coached Fred for three years and he obviously had great potential. He was still at King's when I accompanied him to his first world rowing event: the Junior World Championships in Oslo, where he rowed in a coxed pair. We are immensely proud of his outstanding achievement."

Peter Willis, King's School boatman in Fred's time, remembers him well: "Fred was always technically correct - an immaculate oarsman. This Great Britain VIII suited him perfectly because they were all technically very correct. But you need passion too, and that was there in the Olympic final. I'm overjoyed for him, and this is tremendous for British rowing. Fred always looked like he had potential: he was very tall, and now, of course, he's filled out. He set a very good example as Captain of Boats at King's."

The King's School boat club has enjoyed remarkable success over the last decade. The youngest member of the British Olympic rowing squad, nineteen-year-old Frances Houghton, left King's just a year ago and was also Captain of Boats at the school. She has already been to three Junior World Championships and won a gold medal at the 1999 Nations Cup (Under 23 World Championships). In 1998 she set a new junior British record on the rowing ergometer and in 1999 she became Junior World Indoor Rowing Champion in Boston, USA. A former King's Captain of Sculling, Nick Strange, was in the GB coxless IV which narrowly failed to qualify for the Olympics, and he went on to win the silver medal at the 2000 World Championships in a lightweight coxless pair. Another former King's Captain of Boats, tiny Kajsa McLaren, coxed Oxford to victory over Cambridge in this year's Boat
Race at the age of 19. King's rowers have won a series of medals for Great Britain in junior world championships over the last decade, and this summer two bronzes were also won for Great Britain in the European Championship by King's most recent Captain of Sculling, Sara Liddiard. The seeds of the King's School rowers' current success were sown in the 1980s by Richard Hooper who was Master in Charge of Rowing: his drive and enthusiasm enabled pupils to share his vision of what they could achieve if they really put their minds to it. He is now Head of History at King's.

King's Press Officer, Peter Brodie, said that apart from his considerable potential as a rower, Fred Scarlett was remembered at the school as a very decent and pleasant boy, a good monitor and someone who tried hard and had style.
 
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