Most of us will be watching the Olympics with interest over the next few weeks but in the small Fleurieu locality of Dingabledinga, Sarah and Peter Dawson will be brimming with pride.

Their 20-year-old son Angus (Gus) will be competing as the youngest member of the Australian Men’s Rowing Eight. Heats for the event start on Sunday morning with the medal events scheduled for next Friday.

Described as an excellent all-round athlete, Angus played football for Willunga and attended McLaren Flat and Willunga Primary Schools before heading to St Peters College in Year 8, where he first took up rowing. 

After becoming captain of the college rowing team, he made the SA state youth team in 2017.

In 2019 he went to Florida and won a gold medal in the Men’s Coxed Eight in the Under 23 World Rowing Championships.

After training with the South Australian Sports Institute, he won a four-year rowing scholarship to the University of California in 2020.  The COVID-19 pandemic saw him return home earlier this year but in June it was announced that he’d been picked to represent Australia at the Olympics.

Gus will be one of 38 rowers representing Australia in Tokyo and is the youngest in the rowing cohort. 

Rowing Australia has asked Australians to send messages of support and encouragement to the rowers as they won’t have their usual support coming from the stands.

Email a picture or message to [email protected] and it will be printed and placed in the Australian tent at the boat park in Japan.