Gemma King, a PhD student in stem cell biology, is Women’s President of Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) and will make her eighth Boat Race appearance in the annual clash with Oxford in April.
King rowed at St John’s as a Natural Sciences undergraduate with Lady Margaret Boat Club (LMBC) before progressing to the University squad. Now Women’s President of CUBC, she is among the most experienced athletes in this year’s Cambridge line-up.
The upcoming race will mark King’s eighth Boat Race campaign. She previously represented Cambridge in the Lightweight crews in 2019 and 2022, rowed in Blondie – the women’s reserve crew – in 2020, 2021 and 2023, and helped the Blue Boat secure victories in both 2024 and 2025.
King said: "I’m really excited to race the Boat Race again this year - we’ve had a great season so far and seen a lot of progress so we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do on April 4. I’m really grateful to St John’s and LMBC for the support I’ve received over the years and for helping make my time at Cambridge what it has been."
Speaking on Times Radio ahead of the race, King said the Cambridge squad is determined to maintain its recent dominance.
“We’ve been doing everything we can to make sure we can continue our streak,” she said. “You can never sit back and rely on your results from the past.”
The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge has been a centrepiece of the British sporting calendar since the men first competed on the Thames in 1829. Over nearly two centuries, the annual contest has become one of the most iconic university sporting events in the world.
Today, the women’s race stands as a major event in its own right. First held in 1927, the race has grown from a modest early contest into a major international sporting event, attracting thousands of spectators along the Thames and millions of viewers worldwide. The women’s race will celebrate its centenary in 2027, marking 100 years since the first contest in 1927, although the event was not held every year in its early decades.
Since 2015, the women’s race has been staged on the same Championship Course as the men’s event on the Tideway in London, running from Putney to Mortlake over 4.25 miles of tidal river.
The 2026 race will be the 80th edition of the Women’s Boat Race, continuing a long-standing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge that stretches back nearly a century.
In recent years, Cambridge has enjoyed a particularly strong run of form. The Light Blues have won the women’s race for the past eight years, including the 2024 and 2025 contests in which King was part of the victorious Blue Boat crew.
The crews for this year’s race were unveiled at a public event at Somerset House in London on Thursday 12 March.
The 2026 Boat Race will take place on Saturday 4 April, with the women’s race scheduled for 2.21pm and the men’s race following at 3.21pm on the Thames. The reserve races will take place in between.
A Cambridge Boat Race watch party will take place at the Graduate by Hilton hotel on Saturday 4 April from 1pm, where participants can cheer on the CUBC crews and watch all the action on the Thames.
All students, academics, College staff and families are welcome. Entry is free, but registration is required.
The reserve crews (men’s Goldie and women’s Blondie) will be announced on Monday 16 March, followed by the Lightweights on Tuesday 17 March.
Listen to Gemma’s interview on Times Radio (at 40:57)
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