Mazda NZ adds Gold medal rowers Brooke Francis, Lucy Spoors to team
Mazda New Zealand is partnering with champion rowers Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors as brand ambassadors with the athletes sharing similar life highlights over the past few years.
Between them, they have achieved four World Championship titles, eight World Cup victories and most recently a bronze medal at the World Coastal Championships.
Lucy had achieved silver medal success in 2020 as part of the Women’s Eight. Then in 2022 she and her fiancée welcomed baby Rupert.
Brooke was a Women’s Double Scull silver medallist in 2020 before also welcoming a new baby in 2022, daughter Keira.
A shared bond of being both new mothers and champion athletes, Brooke and Lucy formed a partnership in the Women’s Double Scull, securing a gold medal in their pinnacle event in 2024.
Being a part of the rowing community, they knew the commitment and determination to remain at the peak of their sport. But as new parents, they could relate to what the other was experiencing on this new journey.
“The build-up ahead of any international competition is a big undertaking in itself and doing it as a new mum added a whole new layer of things to consider”, says Lucy.
“Brooke and I could totally share and understand the challenges we were both working through, and that understanding made our journey to Paris all the more possible.”
Brooke and Lucy will be driving new Mazda CX-60 plug-in hybrids during their Mazda partnership, a model that will fit seamlessly into their daily lives. Based in Cambridge, the drive to training at Karapiro can effortlessly be achieved using only electric power, with longer journeys out of town and to events supported by the CX-60’s petrol engine.
Mazda New Zealand Managing Director, David Hodge, is delighted to welcome Brooke and Lucy on board.
“Brooke and Lucy are both incredible people. They are absolutely among the world’s best in their sport, they have both juggled parenthood whilst remaining at sport’s elite level and have done it all with typical Kiwi humility and attitude. They are remarkable role models to so many of us”.
As part of their role as Mazda ambassadors, the duo will begin to collaborate and feature in Mazda New Zealand’s marketing activity, as well as supporting the brand within their local community.