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Sir Steve Redgrave expects Team GB to top rowing’s medal table at the Olympic Games in Paris.
The five-time Olympic rowing champion believes Great Britain will banish the disappointment of Tokyo three years ago when there was no rowing gold for the first time since 1980.
Team GB claimed one silver and one bronze to finish 14th in the rowing table, a dismal return for a powerhouse of British Olympic sport with 65 medals won since Paris 1900. The fallout descended into acrimony as British Rowing was engulfed by a civil war, much of which surrounded controversial, now-departed men’s coach Jurgen Grobler.
Josh Bugajski – who was part of the men’s eight that won bronze said at the time: “There were people that he (Grobler) seemed to take a disliking to and what he did to them was destroy them, destroy their soul, destroy everything. I popped a bottle of champagne when Jurgen retired. I had three very dark years under him, I’d be a coward not to say on behalf of the guys who are back home and didn’t make it onto the team and that got the darker side of Jurgen.”
Matt Rossiter – part of the unsuccessful men’s coxless four who end a 20-year streak of Team GB winning gold in the event also hit out at the ‘old guard’ of British rowing, who he believed were rooting for them to fail.
“The slightly older guard, I’d say, have enjoyed revelling in us not doing so well at the start of the Olympiad,” Rossiter said before the Games. After their fourth-place finish in the final, he added: “It’s more just disappointing that those people will probably be really smug now that they are part of the legacy that won. That was a motivation to do well. I hope those people are happy we have not continued the gold run.”
But the legendary Redgrave is now convinced that bitterness in the past and adamant that the Brits will sit top of the rowing medal table come the end of Paris 2024.
“Losing Jurgen Grobler, who had been men’s chief coach for a long period of time, and Paul Thompson, the best women’s coach, before the Tokyo Games was huge,” said Redgrave.
“As an administration we got ourselves a little bit lost. We got so caught up with the politics of change and bringing that change in, which did need to happen.
“We had the quality of athletes and we should have won two gold medals. That would have been acceptable, but we didn’t. In that delay (due to Covid) the administration was talking about Paris, and those athletes missed their chance in Tokyo.”
Team GB are sending a 42-strong rowing squad to Paris 2024 with medal prospects littered throughout both male and female categories.
Mum of three Helen Glover will grab most of the headlines in her pursuit of a third Olympic title after winning women’s pair gold with Heather Stanning in 2012 and 2016.
Glover – who Redgrave describes as “outstanding” – is now part of the fours crew with Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten.
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant are big favourites in the lightweight women’s double sculls having remained unbeaten since Tokyo.
Much is also expected of Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George in the men’s pair, as well as women’s quad, men’s four and men’s eight crews.
Redgrave said: “I think we’ll be the top rowing nation in Paris. At the World Championships last year we got six gold medals and finished second on the medal table to the Netherlands (who also had six golds but more medals overall).
“We’re quite a predictable sport as the tradition is that 80 per cent of world champions go on to become Olympic champions. I expect that to be a bit less in Paris, but we’ve got to knock the Netherlands off their perch.
“We’ve won gold in World Cup races this year in different boats to those at the World Championships last year. So that shows we’ve got other boats that are capable of being there or thereabouts.
“I think we’ll win more medals and probably more golds than the Netherlands. It’s not a straight shootout between us, but there’s no other country in the running to potentially win that amount of medals.”
