 Drysdale won the 2006 Sportsman of the Year award and took out the supreme Halberg award.He was again voted Sportsman of the Year in 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2016, and is the only New Zealander to have won the award more than three times.He won the University of Auckland Young Alumnus of the Year Award in 2007, and was awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rowing in the 2009 New Year Honours.