Tom Aggar (OE 1995-2002) achieved Paralympic gold as a GB adaptive rower. Just three years after an accident that left him paralysed, Tom won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
A graduate of the University of Warwick who played rugby for the university’s First XV, he suffered the non-sport-related accident in 2005. In the following year he started rowing as part of a rehabilitation programme, and soon demonstrated great talent in the sport.
In 2007, at the World Rowing Championships in Munich, he won the gold medal in the 1000m men’s single scull, beating two-time world champion Dominic Monypenny, of Australia, and setting a new world record.
He then went on to win the World Rowing Adaptive Crew of the Year title from the sport’s international governing body in both 2009 and 2010. And in January 2010 he also became the International Rowing Federation’s first Adaptive Rower of the Year, in recognition of his achievements on the water.
In 2011, he won gold at the World Rowing Championships in Slovenia to secure his fourth Championships title. (The following year’s championships were held in August 2012 and were limited to non-Olympic events.)
His unbroken record of victories against international opposition finally came to an end at the London Paralympics in 2012, when he came fourth in the ASM 1x (single sculls) category at Eton Dorney.
2013 was a mixed season for Tom. At the second World Cup in Eton Dorney he won comfortably to secure the gold medal, but he was unable to repeat that performance at the World Rowing Championships in Chunhju, Korea, where he finished fourth, just outside the medals. But in 2014, he achieved a return to form, producing some outstanding performances. At the second World Cup in Aiguebelette, France, he won a gold medal. He went on to win a silver medal at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.