History of Rowing in the Olympics
Rowing has been staged at every Games since making its debut on the Olympic programme in 1900 in Paris, after the rowing event at the 1896 Games was cancelled due to bad weather. Women’s events were introduced at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Meet some of the female coaches who have coached some of the World’s best Rowers:
Lauren Fisher – Great Britain
Lauren is a coach to the British Women’s quadruple sculls (W4x) including rowers; Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Hannah Scott, Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne and Lucy Glover.
Lauren has been coaching with British Rowing for 8 years, having been a Performance coach for the U23s and a World Class Start Coach. Previous to that, she was a High Performance coach at Loughborough University.
We interviewed Lauren back in 20127 – check out the full interview HERE
Hilary Gehman – USA
Hilary is the coach to the Women’s quadruple sculls (W4x) for the USA National team.
Hilary competed in women’s quadruple sculls at the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2004 Summer Olympics. Hilary has also been the Head Coach at the Staley Women’s Rowing at Cornell University.
Kate Bertko – USA
Kate Bertko, one of the nation’s most decorated lightweight rowers and a 2016 Olympian.
Kate’s coaching experience includes positions at California, Princeton, and at the junior level with the Oakland Strokes. She served as an assistant coach at California during the 2007 season, coaching the varsity four to a bronze medal at the 2007 NCAA Championships.
Kate is coaching the W2 women’s team at Tokyo.
Reilly Dampeer – Various
Reilly Dampeer continues to build a strong development program for rowing in the United States. Coach Dampeer has coached various national team athletes since 2010, at events including Senior, U23 and U19 World Championships, Pan American Games, and World Cups. In 2019, Dampeer coached Katelin Gildersleeve to a bronze medal finish in the women’s single at the U19 World Championships in Toyko and Privel Hinkati, of Benin, to qualification in the men’s single for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Reilly went to Oklahoma in 2016 from Washington, DC, where she was the coach of a high performance club rowing program for eight years. She has also coached many athletes to the podium at National Championships, National Selection Regattas and other international events like Henley Royal Regatta and the Australian National Championships. Coach Dampeer recently earned a Master’s Degree in Sport Coaching Leadership from Drexel University. She was also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee National Team Coach Leadership and Education Program. Dampeer’s expertise is in training program development, technical coaching and innovation in integrating emerging science in rowing.
Reilly is coaching a number of Rowers from African Nations including Hinkati Privel from Benin
Sarah Trowbridge – USA
Sarah Trowbridge is an American rower. She began rowing in high school in Guilford, Connecticut and won two Big 10 championships at the University of Michigan. She joined the U.S. national team in 2008. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women’s double sculls with partner Margot Shumway. They finished 6th in the finals.
In August 2017, she was named head coach of the women’s rowing team at the University of San Diego.
She will be coaching W1X USA at Tokyo.
Laurel Korholz – USA
Laurel Korholz joined the U.S. coaching staff in April of 2005. Korholz assists women’s head coach Tom Terhaar in the training, recruiting and organization of the U.S. Women’s National Team. She has been an integral part of the success of the women’s program including the women’s eight’s 11 consecutive world and Olympic championships, including three Olympic gold medals, from 2006-2016.
In 2019, Korholz coached women’s single sculler Kara Kohler to a bronze medal at the world championships.
At the 2015 World Rowing Championships, Korholtz coached the women’s quadruple sculls to a world title and at the 2012 Olympic Games, Korholtz coached the U.S. women’s quadruple sculls to a bronze medal, a first for the United States.
As a rower, Korholtz was an 11-time national team member and a three-time Olympian.
Laurel will be coaching women’s singles for USA at Tokyo.
Andrea Coppola – Italy
Andrea Coppola as the new technical director for the Italian national team.
New technical director Coppola, 54, comes to the position after holding a role inside the national team since 1993. During that time Coppola has helped train many top athletes including the men’s four at the 1994 and 1995 World Championships. He also trained the men’s four (Carlo Mornati, Lorenzo Carboncini, Riccardo Dei Rossi and Valtar Molea) that won silver at the Sydney Olympics.Coppola currently holds the position as head club coach in his home town of Naples, a position he has held since 1980.
Coppola has also coached at the junior and under 23 level and is a former accomplished rower himself having rowed under La Mura in the late 1960s winning the Italian Championships with Giuseppe Abbagnale in 1977
