World Rowing Coach of the Year: Francesco Fossi

Italian Francesco Fossi has made such a mark on rowing in 2023 that at after just a handful of years coaching, he’s been named World Rowing’s Coach of the Year.

Most will still know Fossi more from his rowing days with the Italian national team. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he raced to fourth in the men’s double sculls. This was the twilight of his career that included the 2012 Olympic Games, two World Championship medals and a European Champion title.

Fossi’s rowing career began as a 13-year-old at the Florence Rowing Club and at 16 years old he was already on the junior national team racing in the men’s eight. He went on to win two world junior medals and three under-23 medals. While racing on Italy’s under-23 team he also competed at the senior level in European and World Championships and World Cups.

Fossi retired from competitive rowing in 2017 when, he says, his life had moved on and putting the effort into being a top rower was no longer his priority. He was married and had started a family.

“This changed my perspective,” say Fossi, who tried to keep going after Rio, but the desire was no longer there.

Married to former Dutch National Team rower, Claudia Belderbos, Fossi moved with his family to the Netherlands. His start in coaching was with ASR Nereus Club, one of the most successful clubs in the Netherlands. Then in 2018 he became head coach at DSRV Laga – a student rowing club in Delft. After the Tokyo Olympic Games Fossi was asked to join the Dutch National Rowing Team as a national coach.

“I had a good relationship with Eelco Meenhorst (head coach for the Dutch National Rowing Team). He asked me to join the team.”

As coach for the Dutch men’s sculling team Fossi’s 2023 season was nothing short of stunning. The World Rowing Championships had Fossi’s crew pick up gold in the men’s double sculls (Melvin Twellaar and Stefan Broenink) and men’s quadruple sculls (Lennart van Lierop, Finn Florijn, Tone Wieten, Koen Metsemakers). These two golds helped secure the Netherlands as the top rowing nation for the championships.

Fossi’s double of Twellaar and Broenink raced together at the Tokyo Olympics and finished second. Fossi kept them as a crew through the 2023 season. This year, as well as the World Champion title, Twellaar and Broenink picked up a bronze at the European Rowing Championships and gold at World Rowing Cup III.

For the quad Fossi had a slightly different line up at the start of the season than the final line up that raced at the World Rowing Championships. The crew finished second at the European Rowing Championships followed by gold at World Rowing Cup III.

Fossi has melded into the Dutch system which, he says, is organised around the Olympic quadrennial. Planning began two years ago and Fossi has been working in with the pre-planned training camps and regatta race schedule that will take them through to the Paris Olympics.

Fossi says coming from the Italian system into the Netherlands rowing system has proved to be completely different in every way except for the rowers.

“In the end the rowers are similar kinds of people. Everyone wants to win, everyone wants to put in the effort.”

World Rowing will be producing a series of stories on international coaches in 2024. Keep an eye out for more about Fossi’s coaching style early in the new year.