Tim Foster Retires to Coach

Olympic champion Tim Foster of Great Britain has announced his decision to  retire from international competition to concentrate on coaching.

The man who has won Olympic gold and bronze and a total of seven World Championships medals (two gold, two silver and three bronze) will not be lost to the sport.

The Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) is awarding him an Apprentice Coach Scholarship, the first award in a new initiative to help retiring top rowers make the step into high performance coaching. The award is funded by the Lottery Sports Fund through the ARA’s World Class Performance Grant. Foster will be working with national squad athletes, mentored by chief coach Jurgen Grobler. He will also continue his current coaching work with the University of London squad.

Foster, now aged 31, had surgery on his troublesome right knee in September and was given the go-ahead to resume training in early November. After much thought, Foster reluctantly decided that he has put his body through enough and the time has come for retirement.

“It had to happen sooner or later,” said Foster. “It’s been on the cards. I think my body is trying to tell me something. It was a very difficult decision. Rowing has been my life for the last twelve years at least, and it’s what I loved doing. I looked forward to getting out on the river. But now I feel I’m better off looking forward and going into coaching rather than putting my body through the strain of the next three years.”

Foster has overcome a succession of major injuries during his long and successful career. He was the first British junior to win two successive World Junior Championship gold medals – first in a coxless four in 1987 and the  following year in a coxless pair with Matthew Pinsent. He made his senior debut in 1989, winning a bronze medal in  the eight at the World Championships. He had major back surgery for the first time in 1993 and then came back to win the bronze medal in the coxless four (with the Searle brothers and Rupert Obholzer) in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

In 1997, Foster won a place in the new coxless four with Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell and won his first senior World Championships gold medal. The next year he recovered from a serious hand injury to regain his place in the crew and win his second world gold. But that autumn his back required further major surgery and his place in the four in 1999 was taken by Ed Coode. Foster recovered in time to secure a place in the GB eight and win a silver medal at the World Championships. Coode and Foster duelled for the place in the four for the Olympic season Foster regained his place in the boat and the four went on to win an unforgettable Olympic final in Sydney.

After that Olympic success, Foster announced his intention to continue rowing to the 2006 Athens Games. He took up a part-time coaching position at the University of London Boat Club and resumed training in mid-January 2001, after taking time out to settle his back. He then suffered the first occurrence of the knee injury and missed the national trials in April. He recovered and trained in the single scull, competing in World Cup regattas and Henley before deciding to opt out of the 2001 World Championships to concentrate on regaining full fitness for the 2002 season. It was not to be. His knee injury recurred and he underwent surgery in September before deciding the time had come to retire.