Henley Women’s Regatta is delighted to welcome four new ambassadors to the list of exceptional women supporting the event, bringing the total number of ambassadors to 20.
Paris 2024 Olympic Games medallists Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave, Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne and Becky Wilde have all joined the team. Booth, Redgrave and Hodgkins Byrne were presented with their special HWR Ambassadors badges at the volunteers’ tea party on 27 April 2025 at Henley Town Hall, where they also mingled with some of the many volunteers who help make the regatta happen every year.
Booth and Redgrave were both part of the women’s coxless four which won silver in Paris last July. Booth first raced at HWR as a junior, and went on to win the Colgan Foundation Cup for aspirational academic eights in 2018 and the Ron Needs Challenge Cup for championship eights in 2021, both for Oxford Brookes University.
Redgrave was part of Norwich Rowing Club’s first-ever eight to compete at HWR in 2016, and in 2019 won the Ron Needs Cup in a GB development crew.
Hodgkins Byrne and Wilde teamed up in Paris in the women’s double sculls. After qualifying the boat at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, they won a superb bronze medal in Paris. Both have won three HWR trophies: Hodgkins Byrne taking her first win in 2013 in junior quadruple sculls for Gloucester Hartpury, and Wilde’s first victory coming in 2021 when she won the W Peer Cup for elite double sculls.
They join several other Paris Olympians and Paralympians as HWR Ambassadors, including lightweight women’s double sculls champions Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, and PR3 mixed coxed four champion Erin Kennedy.
The HWR Ambassadors provide inspiration and motivation for competitors and help to showcase the thrill and excitement of racing at Henley Women’s Regatta with our partners and supporters. Competitors will be able to meet many of these role models this year around the course, at the international crew reception, and at prizegiving.
