Mahe Drysdale

Sport: Rowing

Nation: New Zealand

DOB: November 19, 1978

Hometown: Cambridge

Career Highlights: Drysdale will make his third Olympic appearance this summer, and second in single sculls after winning that event at the 2011 world championships. It was the fifth time in six years he’s won that race at the worlds, the run "blemished" only by a silver in 2010. Despite his remarkable success at that competition - including a win in 2005 at Olympic site Eton Dorney - Drysdale has yet to take gold at the Games. He finished fifth in the coxless four in 2004 and took third in single sculls in Beijing behind Norway’s Olaf Tufte and Ondřej Synek of the Czech Republic. The latter result for Drysdale, who was New Zealand’s flag carrier at the 2008 opening ceremony, was particularly disappointing as he was extremely sick during the week heading into the Games. He did not train for four months after Beijing, but a new regiment designed to combat an arthritic condition has him targeting Olympic gold again. Drysdale's first name is actually Alexander, but he goes by his middle name, which is named after an island in the Seychelles.

Olympic History: 2008,2004