Nicolas Pratt

Biography

Nicolas Pratt first represented Canada at the 2006 U23 World Championships. He made his senior international debut a year later at the World Cup in Lucerne. In 2008 he competed at the world championships for events that were not included on the Olympic program, such as the lightweight eight in which he and the crew made the A final. At that point, he felt content with what he had accomplished in rowing so after finishing his undergrad degree he started looking for work. But rowing still called to him so he decided to train while pursuing his Master’s degree. Once he finished that, he was ready to put all of his focus back on elite rowing and joined the national training centre in London, Ontario. The time away meant Pratt had a  five year break between international appearances, until he competed in the lightweight single scull in 2013. He moved into the lightweight double scull in 2014. In 2015, Pratt was a member of the Canadian lightweight four, dubbed the “northern lights”, that won gold at the Pan Am Games in Toronto and secured an Olympic berth for Rio 2016 with their 11^th place finish at the world championships.

Getting to know…

Family: Parents Gerhard and Bernadette Pratt… Younger brother Francis… Was born in Norway where his father was working internationally… Getting into the Sport: Started rowing at age 14 with high school friends and despite knowing nothing about it, was quickly drawn into its demanding nature and how it rewards hard work… Outside Interests: Graduated from Queens University in 2009 with a  Mechanical Engineering degree and the University of Western Ontario in December 2012 with a Master’s of Science in Engineering… Enjoys doing consulting work in the areas of fluid dynamics and composite materials; it’s a good distraction between practice… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto: “Anything worth doing is worth doing properly”… Favourite Olympic moment was watching the lightweight men’s four win bronze at Beijing 2008 after he had spent the two years prior watching them train while he was a U23 rower…