Duncan Free participant in rowing at the 1996 Summer Olympics – men's quadruple sculls
Duncan Seth Free  (born 25 May 1973) is a retired Australian rower and Olympic gold medallist. He is 4-time Olympian and two-time world champion who represented Australia at four world rowing championships in both sculls and sweep oared boats. He was a six-time Australian national sculling champion.Rowing family
Free was born in Hobart, Tasmania. His father Reg Free rowed in numerous King's Cup crews for Tasmania from 1962 and in 1967, became the first Tasmanian oarsman selected to row in the Australian men's eight when they competed by invitation at the 1967 European Rowing Championships in Vichy, France. The family relocated to Queensland in 1983 and in the next decade Reg Free coached several Queensland King's Cup crews and coached his sons Marcus and Duncan to state, national and international victories.National representative rowing
Duncan and his brother Marcus were paired in the men's double scull at two world championships (1997 & 1998) coached by Reg. They took a bronze medal at the 1997 World Rowing Championships at Lac d'Aiguebelette, France.Duncan was seated in Australian Olympic quad sculls for the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. He won a bronze medal at Atlanta 1996, placed fourth in Sydney and seventh in Athens.
After the Athens Games, Duncan took a year off before switching to sweep rowing and establishing a partnership with gold medallist Drew Ginn in the coxless pair. They won at the World Championships 2006 and 2007 and took the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
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