Hamish Bond is an international rowing legend, well-known for competing as a part of 'New Zealand's Golden Pair' with Eric Murray, who won back-to-back Olympic golds in the men's pair in London 2012 and Rio 2016. After a brief but successful transition to road cycling, Hamish returned to rowing to conquer the blue ribband men’s eight at Tokyo 2020.
From 2009 to 2016 the “Kiwi Pair” reigned supreme over the rowing world going on an unprecedented eight year, 69 race unbeaten streak that included eight word champion titles and two Olympic gold medals. Dominating the field on numerous occasions they also obtained two world record times.
Domestically, the Kiwi Pair have been awarded the supreme Halberg award in 2012 and 2014, culminating in them being awarded New Zealand’s athletes of the decade. In 2018 they were awarded rowing’s most prestigious international award, the Thomas Keller Medal.
After an impressive two years pursuing cycling, with a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and a national record in the individual pursuit in 2019, Hamish returned to rowing winning New Zealand’s second Olympic gold in the men’s eight - our first win since 1972.
In the 2022 New Year Honours, Hamish was announced to be Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for his services to rowing.
Background
Hamish was born in Dunedin in 1986. He was attracted to rowing as a teenager rowing at Otago Boys High School and by the time he was 20, was a member of the national senior team.
Hamish and Eric formed one of the greatest combinations in rowing history. The pair were also World Champs in the men’s four in 2007 but bombed at the Beijing Olympics. Being able to learn and bounce back from this experience has been crucial to their current success. Having lived in each other’s pockets for more years than they'd like to count - the Kiwi Pair have an interesting and successful approach to working as a team. Having learned from Beijing, and knowing what they wanted to achieve at London, the pair set about mapping their path to Gold. With a common goal and an unparalleled determination to succeed the mixture for success was spot on!
Hamish has graduated from Massey with a Bachelor of Business Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Personal Financial Planning. He married his wife Lizzie in 2015 and now has three children.
As a speaker Hamish has a great down to earth and humorous style with fantastic messages relevant to business and personal success.
Hamish was superb, we have had nothing but positive feedback from our guests. Most commented he was the best speaker we have had. He was a very good communicator, personable and very easy to ... keep reading Ovation New Zealand
He was funny and engaged with the audience, professional and kind. Everyone said they loved him and enjoyed his performance.
