OBE Rowing Olympian joins The Construction Helpline webinar to discuss the importance of tackling mental health and inequality amongst young people
Andrew Triggs Hodge OBE (pictured) is a retired British Olympic rower and a triple Olympic Gold Medallist and quadruple World Champion. He is the former lead rower for the Great Britain Olympic team and also a former Oxford Blue, winning the 2005 boat race whilst studying an MSc degree in Water Science, Policy and Management at The University of Oxford. Interestingly, Andrew’s interest in rowing became apparent after joining a small boat club at Staffordshire University where he studied a BSc in Environmental Science.
Why tackling inequality matters
Discover why Andrew is totally committed to tackling youth inequality, particularly those living in disadvantaged communities in the upcoming Building Bridges Webinar (hosted by Construction Helpline).
Voluntary work and charity
Andrew is passionate about giving back and helping others. He believes sport and opportunity should be made accessible to all. Andrew is the former Governor of Surbiton High School and enjoys sharing his stories and Olympic titles to motivate and inspire young people through public speaking events.
Using Olympic titles to widen appeal of rowing
Following this, Andrew founded Regatta London in 2019 which runs events that promote inclusion within paddle sports, mainly on the Thames through central London. Andrew is also now the Director of Corporate Engagement and a regular volunteer at London Youth Rowing (LYR).
LYR is a non-profit organisation that aims to encourage young people, particularly those who live in the most disadvantaged communities and areas of London – to get active and to reap the benefits of regular rowing. These magnitudes of benefits include opening more doors to opportunity stemmed from improved confidence, physique, social and mental wellbeing. In addition to this, fostering environments for team building, developing time management and problem-solving skills are all deemed as essential traits for a young person looking to start any promising career.
Meaningful results and impact from charity work
Thanks to the collective efforts of LYR and Andrew, a total number of 7,233 young people aged between 11 to 18 years took part in rowing-related programmes in 2019. Impressively, 65% (4,701) were young people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds and households.