Helen Rachel Mary Backshall (née Glover; born 17 June 1986) is a British professional rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. Ranked the number 1 female rower in the world in 2015–16, she is a two-time Olympic champion, triple World champion, quintuple World Cup champion and quintuple European champion. She and her partner Heather Stanning were the World, Olympic, World Cup and European record holders, plus the Olympic, World and European champions in the women's coxless pairs. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quadruple sculls.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, in partnership with Heather Stanning, she set the Olympic record and won the gold medal in the women's coxless pairs, the inaugural gold medal won by Team GB in 2012 and the first Olympic gold medal for British women's rowing. In December 2012, she won the BBC Olympic Superstars game show. At the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea, she became the world champion with her partner Polly Swann, with whom she also won the 2014 European Rowing Championships at Belgrade and thus became the first woman to hold the Olympic, World and European titles for the coxless pair. She retained her world title and set the world record time in partnership with Heather Stanning at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. They retained their world title at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Lac d'Aiguebelette, France. In 2016, they retained their European title at Brandenburg an der Havel, set the World Rowing Cup record time at Poznań and again won gold at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She retired after the Olympics to begin a family.
In 2021, it was announced that she had restarted training, and on 11 April she regained the European Coxless Pair title in Varese with Polly Swann. She and Swann finished fourth in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the first mother to row for Britain. Glover said "Everyone will remember the year of the pandemic for their own reasons, but for me I'm going to think 'that was the year that took me to another Olympics' And that's bonkers."
Glover was born in Treliske Hospital, Truro to Rachel (née Tucker), a physiotherapist who trained at Guy's Hospital, and Jimmy Glover, a school teacher and Oxford University graduate. She grew up in Penzance in a competitive athletic family with older brother Benjamin, younger twin brother Nathan, and younger sisters, Ruth and Freya.
Her father is a retired school teacher (English) turned ice cream vendor. Jelbert's Ices of Newlyn was started by Glover's great-grandfather. Her father was an all-round sportsman who played tennis at Junior Wimbledon, played football for Penzance 'Magpies' FC and captained the Penzance Pirates rugby team. He captained the University of Oxford in both the 1960 Varsity Match and against South Africa; he made 199 appearances for Bristol; played for 'Devon & Cornwall' against the 'All Blacks'; played for the Barbarians; and captained Cornwall in the County Championship whilst winning 41 caps.
Educated at Heamoor Community Primary School and Humphry Davy School in Penzance, Glover won a sports scholarship to Millfield School in Somerset between 2002 and 2004 due to her running and hockey prowess. She participated in a variety of sports: as a junior she ran cross-country and middle-distance track both for Cornwall and internationally for England, winning a junior international gold medal for England in cross-country running; she played tennis for Cornwall; she swam for Cornwall; she captained the Cornish hockey team; and by the age of 14 was part of the England Satellite Squad for hockey. Her best UK athletic rankings were 23rd for 800 metres, 9th for 1500 metres and 18th for 3000 metres.
Her former PE teacher, Kate Finch, said: "She always had this phenomenal all-round talent, totally committed and totally reliable. You knew if you had Helen in any team you were safe. She took part in everything. She excelled in hockey and cross country. Helen was so hard working and so coachable. If you asked her to do something, she would do it."
Glover said, "When I was at school I was quite strong-minded, I started up sports teams, I played in the boys' football team. I wouldn't let anyone tell me I couldn't do anything".
At University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Glover studied Sport and Exercise Science, and then studied for a PGCE at the University College Plymouth St Mark & St John, in order to teach physical education to secondary school children.
In July 2008, between graduating from the University of Wales and starting at University College Plymouth, Glover, at her mother's suggestion, applied to the Sporting Giants scheme, whereby she was placed on GB Rowing Team's "Start" programme under coach Paul Stannard at Minerva Bath Rowing Club in Bath, Somerset. Thus, whilst attending University College in Plymouth, she transferred her 'teaching placement' to Oldfield School, Bath. After winning Olympic gold she confessed to having achieved the Sporting Giant criterion of 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) by standing on tiptoes while being measured – she is 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m).
She was fourth at the British Indoor Rowing Championships on 26 October 2008.
In 2009, she won the Bernard Churcher Trophy in the senior single scull at the Henley Women's Regatta.
In February 2010, Glover gave up her teaching job and lived with no income while focusing exclusively on training for the national team selection trials. In March she rowed with the Reading University eight and finished third at the Women's Eights Head of the River Race.
In April, she finished 5th at the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials, won a place on the team, gained Lottery funding and was paired with Heather Stanning in the women's coxless pair. In May at the World Rowing Cup in Bled they finished 9th, and in June they finished 5th at Munich, but were unable to race at Lucerne in July due to Glover's illness.
Robin Williams started coaching Glover and Stanning in July when they were ranked 16th and 17th in their event, and were also regarded as reserves for the women's eight. They improved so rapidly that by November they won a silver medal at the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro in New Zealand, finishing in 7:20.24 three seconds behind Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown of New Zealand.
In 2011, Glover and Stanning won the coxless pair event at the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials at Eton-Dorney with a time of 7 minutes 15 seconds. They went on to win both the Munich and Lucerne World Rowing Cup regattas, beating the reigning world champions Haigh and Scown of New Zealand. Great Britain did not enter round 2 of the World Cup in Hamburg due to an E. coli outbreak in the area.
Glover and Stanning finished second in the 2011 World Rowing Championships at Lake Bled, Slovenia, 0.1 seconds behind the winning New Zealand crew of Haigh and Scown, despite both getting a stomach bug when they arrived in Slovenia. Their coach Robin Williams described it as "a gold medal performance without getting the gold medal". In 2015, after retaining their world championship, Stanning said "Thinking back four years we were clear water ahead but lost it on the line. We certainly haven’t forgotten that lesson."
In 2012, Glover and Stanning again won the coxless pair event at the GB Rowing Team selection trials at Eton Dorney on 10–11 March, and went on to complete a clean sweep of all three events in the women's coxless pair of the World Rowing Cup. Winning gold at Belgrade Sava, Serbia in May; Lucerne Rotsee, Switzerland in May; and Munich Oberschleissheim, Germany in June.