University of British Columbia Athletics

Prior to his arrival as a student at UBC in the late 1990s, Ben Rutledge didn't have any experience in the sport of rowing, yet he became an Olympic gold medalist scarcely a decade later as a member of Canada's Eight at the Beijing 2008 Games.

A former high school rugby rugby player from Richmond, B.C., Hamilton started rowing at UBC as a novice in 1997. In addition to winning three World Championships, both he and fellow 2017 UBC Sports Hall of Fame inductee Kyle Hamilton were members of UBC's Four that won the prestigious Head of the Charles in 2005, edging out Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the British National Team which competed as the Oxford University Boat Club. They both helped lead UBC to its first-ever Canadian University Rowing Championships in 2005; to its second consecutive Brown Cup championship against the University of Victoria in 2006, and to the World Championships as members of Canada's Eight in 2002, 03 and 07.

Coached by Mike Spracklen, the 2008 Olympic crew of Rutledge, Kyle Hamilton, Kevin Light, Andrew Byrnes, Jake Wetzel, Malcolm Howard, Dominic Seiterle, Adam Kreek and coxswain Brian Price had consistently proven to be the best, winning the 2007 World Championship title as well as back-to-back editions of the prestigious Lucerne World Cup in 2007 and 2008. The Beijing Games were the second Olympics for Hamilton and Rutledge, who had been members of Canada's Eight that finished fifth at the 2004 Athens Games. The 2008 Olympic champion crew was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Head of the Charles Gold Championship Men's Fours - 2005 (defeating British National Team)
UBC Canadian University Rowing Championship (first-ever) - 2005
UBC Brown Cup champions - 2006