Gearoid Towey

Who is Gearoid Towey?

Gearoid Towey is an Irish Olympic Athlete and former World Rowing Champion, Trans-Atlantic adventurer and actor.

Towey was born in Cork on March 26, 1977 and grew up in Kilworth village which is 5 km from Fermoy where he was schooled in St. Colmans College and became a member of Fermoy Rowing Club. He was introduced to rowing by his siblings and it quickly became his main sport having flirted with mixed success in athletics, karate, tennis and gaelic games

He quickly rose though the ranks of international olympic rowing, making two world junior championship finals, competing in a junior and senior world championship in the same year and became a permanent, popular and one of the most successful members of the Irish Rowing Team for the next 12 years until his retirement after the Beijing Olympics in 2008

Towey, along with Ciaran Lewis, attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 2005 in a 23 ft rowing boat. After 40 days at sea, having endured two tropical storms and a hurricane on the way, their boat was pitch poled by a 10 meter wave, leaving the men adrift 900 miles from landfall. They were rescued in the middle of a force 9 storm at night by the supertanker "Hispania Spirit".