27 Jan 2025
New year, new coaches
With the Rowing world entering the Los Angeles 2028 Olympiad, the end of 2024 prompted a flurry of coaching moves – and some still to come.
A number of the most successful Olympic rowing programmes said farewell to the coaches who led them to glory in Paris, and some of those leaders have been scooped up by rival teams.
Perhaps most notably, the 2024 World Rowing Coach of the Year, Antonio Colamonici, left his job as Romania’s head coach to return to his native Italy. Colamonici headed the Romanian programme for eight years; under his leadership, Romania won three gold and five silver medals at two Olympic Games; 22 gold, 13 silver and nine bronze medals at eight European Rowing Championships; and six gold, four silver and two bronze medals at five World Rowing Championships.
Colamonici coached in Italy before moving to Romania, leading the Italian junior men to 13 world and European titles among other achievements. His new appointment as Italian technical director lasts until the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Other Italians are also on the move. Antonio Maurogiovanni is the new head coach for France, after seven years as high performance director at Rowing Ireland. In Ireland, he led the team to four Olympic medals, including back-to-back titles for the lightweight men’s double sculls. He previously spent two stints coaching in Australia, and two years as the men’s head coach in the Netherlands.
Rowing Ireland said lightweight head coach Dominic Casey would serve as interim head coach while the federation developed a new high-performance strategy, in the wake of the end of lightweight rowing at the Olympic Games and the inclusion of beach sprints in Los Angeles.
France is also in the process of restructuring its programme, with the creation of a new national training centre at the Paris 2024 venue of Vaires-sur-Marne.
Maurogiovanni’s son Nicolo, who was men’s coach in Ireland for the past four years, is moving back to Australia – where he learned to row – to support Rowing Australia’s new men’s head coach Chris O’Brien. O’Brien has returned to rowing from a stint as performance director and interim CEO for Gymnastics Australia.
Australia also recruited a new women’s head coach in September last year, bringing on board James Harris who was previously the Olympic high performance coach for Great Britain. Meanwhile former para lead coach James Loveday is stepping up to replace para head coach Chad King, who has stepped down.
At the end of November, Dutch head coach Eelco Meenhorst announced he had decided to step down, after a stellar Olympiad where the Netherlands topped the medal table with four gold medals. Meenhorst said he had achieved everything he had wanted to achieve with the team, but will remain involved in the transition to new leadership. The Netherlands has not yet announced his replacement.
Elsewhere, Germany’s head coach Brigitte Bielig’s term finished at the end of December, after three years in the job. Germany is currently recruiting to replace Bielig, and is also hunting for a lead men’s sweep coach.
It was just announced that Alexis Besançon, one of the most successful French coach, will now join Switzerland as the Head Coach, replacing Ian Wright of New Zealand.
The coaches making their moves will have their first chances to show what they can do at the European Rowing Championships in May, the World Rowing Cups in June, and the World Rowing Championships in September this year.