FISA Announces 2004 Award Winners

British men's four
© FISA

Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski
© Dominik Keller

Mike Teti
© Backbone Media LLC

Mike Sweeney
© Peter Spurrier

FISA, the International Rowing Federation, has announced the recipients of the 2004 FISA Awards.

The award for 2004 FISA Male Crew of the Year will be presented to 2004 Olympic Champions in the Men's Four from Great Britain: Matthew Pinsent, Ed Coode, James Cracknell and Steve Williams.  The crew was formed in a surprise move by coach Juergen Groebler in spring 2004 and suffered through the season with injuries, illnesses and line-up changes making the Olympics their first major regatta rowing together.  Winning at Schinias brought Pinsent his fourth Olympic Gold medal.

Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany will be awarded the 2004 FISA Female Crew of the Year Award.  Rutschow-Stomporowski has been on the world stage since 1991 when she won silver at the age of 16 in her first Junior World Championships.  She went on to win gold at the Junior Championships in 1992 and 1993.  This fast tracked her into the German national team's quad and she became a senior World Champion in 1994 and then an Olympic Champion in 1996.  She has been winning medals ever since.  Unbeaten at World Rowing events in 2004 she crowned her achievements with an Olympic Gold in Athens in the Women's Single Sculls.

The 2004 FISA Coach of the Year award will go to Mike Teti of the United States, coach of the US Men's Eight.  Teti led the American crew to their first Olympic gold in 40 years.  Teti rowed on the national team for over a decade before becoming coach at Princeton University for nine years. He was named head coach of the US men's rowing team in 1997 and promptly led the US to three consecutive Men's Eight World Championships in 1997, 1998 and 1999. A four year Gold medal drought ended with this year's Olympic Gold in Athens.

The 2004 FISA Distinguished Service to Rowing award will be presented to Mike Sweeney of Great Britain.  Sweeney has been an integral part of FISA for the past 14 years serving as a member of the Executive Committee and Council as well as Chairman of the Events Commission. He has been instrumental in ?raising the standard? of World Rowing and Olympic regattas. Sweeney has been FISA's Technical Delegate for the Olympic Games since 1992.  He chose to announce his retirement during the Athens Olympics.

The medals will be presented to the recipients at the annual FISA Coaches Conference which takes place in Gifu, Japan, from November 5 to 8th.

For more information please contact:
Helen Bishop, Communications Manager, FISA (International Rowing Federation), P.O. Box 18, Ave de Cour 135, 1000 Lausanne 3, SWITZERLAND.
tel. +41 21 612 0226 – fax +41 21 617 8375 – helen.bishop@fisa.org