Chris Morgan (born 15 December 1982) is an Australian former representative rower. He was a national champion, two-time world champion, three time Olympian and Olympic medal winner from Adelaide, South Australia. He won world championships in both sculls and in sweep-oared boat classes.
Education
Raised in Adelaide, Morgan attended Burnside Primary and Norwood Morialta High School. He had no exposure to rowing before university. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Adelaide and works as a software engineer.
Morgan began his athletic career as a competitive walker. He took up rowing in 2003 after participating in an ergometer competition held by the Adelaide University Boat Club during the University's Orientation Week. He held the fastest time on the competition until a rower from the Boat Club competed at the last moment in order to claim the case of beer that was offered as a prize. As a result of entering the competition, Chris was invited to join the Boat Club. He undertook a "Learn to Row" program and that same season was competing for Adelaide University in senior boats.
Morgan was diagnosed with high functioning autism at age 28. He has reported that his communication style and obsession with performance improvement made it hard for him to be understood and accepted in the team environment of a rowing squad.
Club and state rowing
At the end of Morgan's first season of rowing in 2003–04, he won a gold medal in a double scull at the World University Games in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France. He was selected for the Australian rowing squad in 2005 and invited to train with the Australian Institute of Sport.
In 2010, Morgan won the Australian national single scull championship, becoming the first South Australian to do so in 40 years.
Morgan has consistently represented for his state at the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships. In the twelve-year period 2005 to 2016 he raced for South Australia on nine occasions in King's Cup eights and on eight occasions he sculled in the President's Cup. He rowed in both boats at five championships.
After London Olympics Morgan relocated to Sydney and continued his club rowing from the Sydney Rowing Club.
International rowing career
Morgan represented Australia in the men's quad scull at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. His crew won their heat in a world's best time of 5:36.20, beating the previous fastest time, set by Poland, by a second. The Australians finished fourth in the final. That time of 5:36.20 stood as the Olympic best time until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
At the 2010 World Rowing Championships Morgan won the coxed pair world championship title with partner Dominic Grimm and coxswain David Webster at Lake Karapiro, New Zealand.
At the 2011 World Rowing Championships in an upset, Morgan rowing in the Australian men's quad defeated the German crew to take gold. Following a costly mistake in the German boat, the Australian crew took the lead in the final metres and won the race by 0.25secs.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Morgan won bronze in the men's quad scull in a time of 5:45.22.
In 2016 Morgan qualified with West Australian David Watts to contest the men's double scull at the 2016 Rio Olympics. They were out-raced in the semi-finals and won the B final for an overall seventh placing.
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- 1962: (Wolfgang Neuß, Klaus-Günter Jordan, cox Frank Steinhäuser)
- 1966: (Hadriaan van Nes, Jan van de Graaff, cox Poul de Haan)
- 1970: (Ștefan Tudor, Petre Ceapura, cox Ladislau Lovrenschi)
- 1974: (Vladimir Eshinov, Nikolay Ivanov, cox Aleksandr Lukyanov)
- 1975: (Jörg Lucke, Wolfgang Gunkel, cox Bernd Fritsch)
- 1977: (Todor Mrankov, Dimitar Yanakiev, cox Stefan Stoykov)
- 1978: (Jürgen Pfeiffer, Gert Uebeler, cox Olaf Beyer)
- 1979: (Jürgen Pfeiffer, Gert Uebeler, cox Georg Spohr)
- 1981: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1982: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1983: (Ullrich Dießner, Thomas Greiner, cox. Andreas Gregor)
- 1985: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1986: (Andy Holmes, Steve Redgrave, cox. Patrick Sweeney)
- 1987: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1989: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1990: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1991: (Carmine Abbagnale, Giuseppe Abbagnale, cox Giuseppe Di Capua)
- 1993: (Jonny Searle, Greg Searle, cox Garry Herbert)
- 1994: (Igor Boraska, Tihomir Franković, cox Milan Ražov)
- 1995: (Luca Sartori, Giuliano de Stabile, cox Antonio Cirillo)
- 1996: (Yannick Schulte, Luc Prevot, cox Christophe Tellier)
- 1997: (Scott Fentress, Jordan Irving, cox Nicholas Anderson)
- 1998: (Nick Green, James Tomkins, cox Brett Hayman)
- 1999: (James Neil, Phil Henry, cox Nicholas Anderson)
- 2000: (Matt Guerrieri, Kurt Borcherding, cox Nicholas Anderson)
- 2001: (James Cracknell, Matthew Pinsent, cox Neil Chugani)
- 2002: (Lars Krisch, Andreas Werner, cox Claus Müller-Gattermann)
- 2003: (Matt Rich, Dan Beery, cox Andrew Kelly)
- 2004: (Mattia Trombetta, Mario Palmisano, cox Luigi Longobardi)
- 2005: (Hardy Cubasch, Sam Conrad, cox Marc Douez)
- 2006: (Nikola Stojić, Jovan Popović, cox Ivan Ninković)
- 2007: (Dawid Paczes, Lukasz Kardas, cox Daniel Trojanowski)
- 2008: (Gabriel Bergen, James Dunaway, cox Mark Laidlaw)
- 2009: (Troy Kepper, Henrik Rummel, cox Marcus McElhenney)
- 2010: (Chris Morgan, Dominic Grimm, cox David Webster)
- 2011: (Vincenzo Capelli, Pierpaolo Frattini, cox Niccolò Fanchi)
- 2012: (Stanislau Shcharbachenia, Aliaksandr Kazubouski, cox Piotr Piatrynich)
- 2013: (Luca Parlato, Vincenzo Abbagnale, cox Enrico D'Aniello)
- 2014: (Eric Murray, Hamish Bond, cox Caleb Shepherd)
- 2015: (Nathaniel Reilly-O'Donnell, Matthew Tarrant, cox Henry Fieldman)
- 2016: (Oliver Cook, Callum McBrierty, cox Henry Fieldman)
- 2017: (Adrián Juhász, Béla Simon, cox Andrea Vanda Kolláth)
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- 1974: (Joachim Dreifke, Götz Draeger, Rüdiger Reiche, Jürgen Bertow)
- 1975: (Stefan Weiße, Wolfgang Güldenpfennig, Wolfgang Hönig, Christof Kreuziger)
- 1977: (Frank Dundr, Martin Winter, Karl-Heinz Bußert, Wolfgang Güldenpfennig)
- 1978: (Joachim Dreifke, Karl-Heinz Bußert, Martin Winter, Frank Dundr)
- 1979: (Peter Kersten, Klaus Kröppelien, Karl-Heinz Bußert, Joachim Dreifke)
- 1981: (Peter Kersten, Karl-Heinz Bußert, Uwe Heppner, Martin Winter)
- 1982: (Karl-Heinz Bußert, Uwe Mund, Uwe Heppner, Martin Winter)
- 1983: (Albert Hedderich, Raimund Hörmann, Dieter Wiedenmann, Michael Dürsch)
- 1985: (Doug Hamilton, Robert Mills, Paul Douma, Mel LaForme)
- 1986: (Valeriy Dosenko, Sergey Kinyakin, Mikhail Ivanov, Igor Kotko)
- 1987: (Valeriy Dosenko, Sergey Kinyakin, Mikhail Ivanov, Igor Kotko)
- 1989: (Hans Kelderman, Koos Maasdijk, Herman van den Eerenbeemt, Rutger Arisz)
- 1990: (Valeriy Dosenko, Sergey Kinyakin, Mykola Chupryna, Ģirts Vilks)
- 1991: (Valeriy Dosenko, Sergey Kinyakin, Mykola Chupryna, Ģirts Vilks)
- 1993: (Andreas Hajek, André Steiner, Stephan Volkert, André Willms)
- 1994: (Alessandro Corona, Rossano Galtarossa, Massimo Paradiso, Alessio Sartori)
- 1995: (Alessandro Corona, Rossano Galtarossa, Massimo Paradiso, Alessio Sartori)
- 1997: (Agostino Abbagnale, Giovanni Calabrese, Alessandro Corona, Rossano Galtarossa)
- 1998: (Agostino Abbagnale, Alessandro Corona, Rossano Galtarossa, Alessio Sartori)
- 1999: (Marco Geisler, Andreas Hajek, Stephan Volkert, André Willms)
- 2001: (Christian Schreiber, André Willms, Marco Geisler, Andreas Hajek)
- 2002: (René Bertram, Stephan Volkert, Marco Geisler, Robert Sens)
- 2003: (André Willms, Stephan Volkert, Marco Geisler, Robert Sens)
- 2005: (Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michał Jeliński, Adam Korol)
- 2006: (Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michał Jeliński, Adam Korol)
- 2007: (Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michał Jeliński, Adam Korol)
- 2009: (Konrad Wasielewski, Marek Kolbowicz, Michał Jeliński, Adam Korol)
- 2010: (David Šain, Martin Sinković, Damir Martin, Valent Sinković)
- 2011: (Chris Morgan, James McRae, Karsten Forsterling, Daniel Noonan)
- 2013: (David Šain, Martin Sinković, Damir Martin, Valent Sinković)
- 2014: (Dmytro Mikhay, Artem Morozov, Oleksandr Nadtoka, Ivan Dovhodko)
- 2015: (Philipp Wende, Karl Schulze, Lauritz Schoof, Hans Gruhne)
- 2017: (Dovydas Nemeravičius, Martynas Džiaugys, Rolandas Maščinskas, Aurimas Adomavičius)
- 2018: (Filippo Mondelli, Andrea Panizza, Luca Rambaldi, Giacomo Gentili)
- 2019: (Dirk Uittenbogaard, Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten, Koen Metsemakers)
- 2022: (Dominik Czaja, Mateusz Biskup, Mirosław Ziętarski, Fabian Barański)
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