Hamish Bond

EVENTS: Rowing - Pair, Coxless Four - Cycling Road

International rowing legend Hamish Bond is one of only two New Zealanders, along with Lisa Carrington, to have won gold medals at three Olympics.

Bond won back-to-back Olympic golds in the pair with Eric Murray at London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, before leading the men's eight to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Amazingly, Bond opted for a two-year break from rowing after Rio and took up road cycling. At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, he won the bronze medal in the time trial, a tribute to his adaptability and athleticism.

Bond, born in Dunedin in 1986, boarded at Otago Boys’ High School. He graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Business Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Personal Finance Planning in 2010, but by then he was a world sports star.

Bond was a member of the New Zealand coxless four, along with Eric Murray, Carl Meyer and James Dallinger, that won the world title in Munich in 2007. They were favoured to win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but had a disappointing time of it, missing a place in the six-team final by half a second and then winning the B final to finish seventh overall.

It was to be the last real disappointment of Bond’s rowing career.

Few would have dreamed in 2008 that Bond would find in Murray the perfect partner in the pair event and that they would go on to enjoy a sensational eight-year spell of domination. They were different sizes, with Bond 1.89m (6ft 2in) and Murray 1.96m (6ft 5in). Bond tended to be a quiet achiever, Murray was far more ebullient.

Bond and Murray were unbeaten internationally from 2009 until they parted ways in 2016, winning 69 consecutive races. They also set the world record time in the event (6min 08.50s) at the 2012 Olympics.

They peeled off six successive coxless pairs world titles from 2009-15. They weren’t close races either. Bond and Murray balanced each other perfectly in a boat and their strengths gelled. They generally won their races by several boat lengths. No frantic stroke-for-stroke sprints to the line for them.

They were so dominant that there was heightened interest at the world champs in Amsterdam in 2014 when they also entered the coxed pair event, with Caleb Shepherd as the cox. The result was the same, another comprehensive victory, by more than 10 seconds, another world title.

By the end of their eight years together, Bond and Murray were prohibitive favourites before any race. At the 2012 London Olympics they won by 5½ seconds in an event that is often decided by mere tenths of a second. At Rio four years later, they had three seconds to spare.

After the 2016 Olympics, Murray had knee surgery and Bond looked further afield, at cycling. The team broke up, unbeaten.

Bond’s return to rowing in 2019, at the age of 33, was stunning and he was a strong influence on the New Zealand eight. The crew finished sixth at the 2019 world championships. The result meant they were forced to attend the ‘last chance regatta' in Switzerland in 2021 to book their Olympic spot, which they managed.

In Tokyo the eight finished second in their heat behind the Netherlands, forcing them to compete in the repechage round, which they won. In the final the New Zealanders built a small lead early on and progressed relentlessly towards the gold medal. New Zealand team members later spoke of the confidence they gained from having a proven champion like Bond in their ranks. It was New Zealand’s first gold medal in the Olympic men's eight since 1972. 

Bond retired from rowing early in 2022.

Bond and Murray won the Halberg Supreme Award in 2012 and 2014 and three times won the Team of the Year section at the awards. They were also voted Halberg Champion of the Decade (2010-2019) and, not surprisingly, Team of the Decade. They won the NZOC’s Lonsdale Cup in 2014.

In 2018 the International Rowing Federation awarded Bond and Murray the Thomas Keller Medal  for their outstanding international rowing career. It is the sport's highest honour and is awarded within five years of an athlete's retirement, acknowledging an exceptional rowing career and exemplary sportsmanship.

In 2013 Bond was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 2023 he was promoted to Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.