Overhaul underway at Rowing Canada after Olympic letdown
Men's, women's performance directors out following Rio Games
Less than a month after a bitterly disappointing Rio Olympics, a promised overhaul of Canada's once vaunted national rowing program has begun.
Rowing Canada announced late on Wednesday the head coaches of both the men's and women's national teams are no longer with the program.
Women's coach John Keogh and men's coach Martin McElroy's contracts expire on September 30. Keogh has taken a position with Rowing Australia.
"The performance in Rio played both into their decision and our decision," said Rowing Canada CEO Donna Atkinson. "To be respectful to the individuals the message is that they are moving on from Rowing Canada to pursue other opportunities."
Keogh joined Rowing Canada in 2010 and led the women's eight to a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games. "I have enjoyed my time in Canada and it has been a privilege to work with the athletes, coaches and support staff," said Keogh
McElroy came to the Canadian team with a track record of Olympics success in great Britain. He was unable to match that in Rio is as the men's four went on to finish sixth along with an eighth place finish by the men's quadruple sculls.
"Sometimes it takes someone new and a new approach to renew the energy in the fight. I am okay with that — I made my contribution," McElroy said.
"After 3½ intense and challenging years as performance director of the men's heavyweight program in Victoria, it's time for someone else to pick up the challenge," McElroy said. "After a turbulent transition post-London, we made progress but there is still more to be done.
Turbulent to say the least.
Where did it go wrong?
After a relatively successful London games and a track record of podium success, Rowing Canada was flush with cash.
The program received $17 million from Own the Podium, more than any other Canadian sports program. A new strategy was charted aimed at yielding more medals.
The successful men's eight boat — which won silver at the 2012 Games in London and gold at Beijing 2008 — was broken up in favour of a fours and a quadruple sculls.
"In terms of the strategy being out as exclusively one way or the other...certainly did we want to become better in small boats? Absolutely that needs to become a priority. But i think you also have to look at the talent pool of athletes that are in program and what's the best way to take that talent and put them into the best medal opportunity."
The strategy backfired as Canadian male rowers failed to a win a medal in Rio. In the end the strategy shift and the influx of cash produced only a single medal — a silver from Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee in the women's lightweight double sculls.
In the days after Rio, criticism rained from all corners of the rowing community, from both current and former members of the Canadian national team. Many felt a program that had yielded so much podium success had been unnecessarily tinkered with.
"I kind of feel like what we did during that time, the model wasn't broken," two-time Olympic medallist Jake Wetzel told CBC Sports. "Why would we rip everything up and start fresh?"
More changes coming
Much of the ire was directed at at McElroy, who was brought into replace popular, longtime coach Mike Spracklen. Julien Bahain, who rowed on Canada's quad sculls team in Rio, was critical of McElroy's preference for dry land over on the water training.
"There are good things about Martin for sure. I actually got better, purely physically speaking. But at the same time I got less results on the water," he told CBC Sports.
Atkinson also acknowledged McElroy's challenges. "It took time for him to pull the group together and start moving them forward. In his view he didn't enter the fray in the best of circumstances."
The overhaul at Rowing Canada is far from over; Atkinson will leave her job as CEO at the end of January, but said people can expect more changes at Rowing Canada soon.
"Rowing has always been tough and resilient and achieved a lot on little, " Atkinson says. "So I think everyone is really motivated, come hell or high water, we are going to put ourselves back up there again."
Her replacement will have to deal with a new funding landscape as the thin medal haul in Rio will mean less money for Canadian rowers heading towards Tokyo 2020. The new person in charge will also have to decide the fate of Rowing Canada's high performance director Peter Cookson, the architect of the strategy change.
Cookson told CBC Sports he was "gutted" after the team's performance in Rio. Whether he's the next one to go remains to be seen.
With files from Nick Murray