David Florence

David Florence followed his father, a former Scottish champion, into canoeing and took part in his first competition at the age of 15. He grew up on the same Edinburgh street as Chris Hoy and attended Stewart’s Melville College before studying Mathematical Physics at the University of Nottingham. Florence made his World Championship début in 2005 and was runner-up in the season long World Cup series two years later. A two-second penalty that Florence incurred on the first run of the Olympic final was the difference between first and second place and meant that he would have to settle for silver and not gold. He was World Cup champion in 2009 but did not win a World Championship medal until 2011, after adding Canadian doubles to his usual singles campaign, he was a member of the British team that won a bronze medal in the C-2 team event. Florence is an avid player on the bagpipes.