Lofty Ambitions for Rowing Australia and Donaldson

Noel Donaldson with the Oarsome Foursome crew in 1996
© Getty Images/Ross Kinnaird

Rowing Australia announced its vision to 2008 and with that the appointment of coach Noel Donaldson to the newly created position of High Performance Director.

The vision states, “To be the world’s leading rowing nation in competition, development and governance,” and Donaldson has been placed in the position to lead Australia’s elite rowing programme to that goal for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

President of Rowing Australia, Patrick McNamara, stated in a press release, ?We are saying to the world that we will set the standard by which all other nations are measured. The appointment of Noel Donaldson today shows we are serious about delivering the best possible elite rowing programme. It was a unanimous decision of our board.”

“My aim is to ensure our partnerships with the national, state and territory Institutes of Sport are strong and that we provide our athletes with the best possible environment for them to perform,” says Donaldson.

Donaldson is best known as coach of the “Oarsome Foursome” who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. He also coached Oarsome Foursome member, James Tomkins and partner Matthew Long to a bronze medal in the pair at the 2000 Olympics. Donaldson then went on to be men’s head coach this year at Athens guiding the squad to one gold, one silver and one bronze medal and making them the most successful men’s rowing programme at the Athens Olympics.

?That was a fine achievement to finish ahead of countries such as France, Italy, the United States and Great Britain,” says McNamara.

Donaldson has coached rowing since 1974 and in 1979 was a member of Australia’s national team when he coxed the men’s eight at the World Championships.

As High Performance Director Donaldson will oversee the men’s and women’s elite rowing programme and with that he will relocate from his hometown of Melbourne to Australia’s capital city, Canberra, where the Australian Institute of Sport is based.

Donaldson says the appointment of senior coaches to assist him is one of his first priorities. Already Lyall McCarthy has been chosen as the national women’s technical co-ordinator. McCarthy coached the women’s quad to World Championship gold in 2003 and an Olympic bronze this year at Athens. Donaldson said he was pleased to have McCarthy on board.

Donaldson’s high performance position was created after an 18-month review of the sport prior to Athens.

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