Inside Gate 2 of the Members’ Reserve sits our Wall of Excellence, showcasing our MCC athletes who have excelled at their chosen sport.
From football and cricket to netball, rowing and hockey –each week we profile a member from the Wall and celebrate their accomplishments.James Tomkins OAM – Rowing
Australia’s most award oarsman and member of the dominant Oarsome Foursome of the 1990s and 2000s, James Tomkins has a cabinet full of gold medals.Since making the Australian team for the first time in 1985, Tomkins has gone from strength to strength in multiple disciplines – including Rowing Eights, Coxless Pair, Coxless Four, Coxed Four and Coxed Pair.
With seven world championship golds, a Commonwealth Games gold, two FISA World Cup golds and three gold medals at the Olympics, Tomkins is one of the all-time greats of the sport.
An Olympic veteran, Tomkins is one of just five Australian athletes and four rowers worldwide to compete at six Olympics – 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Tomkins also has a number of individual accolades: including being Australia’s flag bearer at the 2008 Beijing Games, and being awarded the Thomas Keller Medal – rowing’s highest honour - by the International Rowing Federation in 2010. Tomkins is also an inductee in the Sports Australia Hall of Fame, which features in the Australian Sports Museum.
Career highlights:
- Rowing Eights World Championship gold – 1986
- Rowing Eights Commonwealth Game gold – 1986
- Coxed Four Commonwealth Games bronze – 1986
- Coxless Four World Championship gold – 1990, 1991, 1998
- Coxless Four Olympic gold medals – 1992, 1996
- Coxed Pair World Championship gold - 1998
- Coxless Pair World Championship gold – 1999, 2003
- Coxless pair Olympic bronze medal – 2000
- FISA Crew of the Year – 2003
- Coxless pair Olympic gold medal – 2004
- Australian flag bearer at the 2008 Olympics
- Thomas Keller Medal – 2010
- Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductee – 2012