Simon's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Rowing
Event: Men’s Eights
Olympic History: Olympic Debutant
Coach: Rhett Ayliffe
Highlights: Earning a silver medal at the 2018 World Rowing Championships
Year Born: 1992
Born: Melbourne, VIC
Junior Club: Xavier College (Kew, VIC)
About Simon
Keenan relocated to Yale University to advance his rowing career in 2011. In a four-year collegiate career, Keenan competed in the top American collegiate regattas, whilst also earning selection to Australia’s 2014 U23 World Championships in Varese, Italy, where the Xavier College alumni earned silver in the Men’s Eight.
In 2017, Keenan joined Rowing Australia’s Reinhold Batschi National Training Centre in Canberra, where he became immersed in the country’s top competitive environment. Whilst training under Ian Wright, Mark Prater and Andrew Randell, Keenan earned selection in the Australian Men’s Eight for the 2018 World Rowing Cup 3 and World Rowing Championships, where he earned silver in both.
The sport of rowing has taken Keenan around the world, including Tokyo where he made his Olympic debut racing as a member of the Australian Men's Eight.
The crew came up against rowing powerhouses in their Heat, including World Champions Germany as well as the USA and Romania. The fast race was dominated early by the American and German crews with Australia finishing fourth behind Romania to proceed to the repechage.
The crew was able to advance to the A-Final after they finished the repechage in fourth position, this time ahead of the Romanians, and they once again faced a stacked field in the race for medals. Racing out of lane six against the USA, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain, the Australian crew was behind at the start and unable to make up the time or speed throughout the race they finished sixth overall.
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