Originally a tennis player, Richard Wearne was forced to row early in his senior schooling at Newington College, Sydney, by the Head Coach, Olympic silver medallist Michael Morgan. The success of the first rowing season developed a passion for rowing which quickly over shadowed his former love of tennis. Michael continued to coach Wearne following his departure from Newington College Boat Club to Sydney Rowing Club and was responsible for Wearne making the Australian U23 team a year out of school

In 1994, Richard and Rob Walker were being considered as the reserve pair for the Australian men’s team, but after setting a national record in the coxless pair over 2,000m in a time trial, they ended going as the number one ranked crew in the men’s team. Under the direction of Harald Jahrling, a former East German and a former athlete of Jurgen Grobler, the pair of Wearne and Walker raced to a bronze medal at the World Championships finishing in 6:20:1, only 1.1seconds behind the British pair of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

The following season saw Wearne and Walker dominate the domestic scene and earned Wearne his nickname of Monster after some impressive lab results. Producing a VO2 max of 7 litres and a anaerobic threshold power output of 410watts provides a excellent power to weight ratio and helped propel the duo to a Silver Medal at the 1995 World Championships in Tampere, Finland, finishing slightly closer to Redgrave and Pinsent than the year before.

Following the 1995 World championships, Wearne had a rather serious altercation with a truck whilst out cycling which saw him out of a boat until January 1996. Following 6 weeks of rehab Wearne competed at Australian Olympic Trials where he earned a place on the 1996 Australian Olympic team as stroke of the men’s eight. This boat was yet to qualify for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics which they did and eventually finished 6th in Atlanta.

Fuelled by a desire to redeem what Wearne considers a poor performance in Atlanta, he competed at the 1997 World Championships as stroke of the men’s eight once again. With a few new faces on board such as the legendary Drew Ginn and Geoff and James Stewart, the eight finished the season with a bronze medal.

1998 saw Wearne stroke the men’s eight once again, however a season plagued with crew injuries and crew changes up to and including the final, resulted in a disappointing 5th place in the final at the World Championships in Cologne. Unknown to Wearne at the time, but this would be the last time that he raced at the World Championships due to personal injuries.

Wearne continues to row at what he considers a ‘social’ level in London where he now lives. His social rowing most recently included a second place finish in the 2005 Head of the River Race which Wearne claims will be his last…