Rowing NZ forced to abandon controversial stance on US-based College athletes

Four years ago, Rowing NZ were accused of using “scare tactics” to dissuade young athletes from taking up College scholarships in the US, warning them their dreams of rowing for New Zealand would be over if they went overseas. Now the College track is being embraced by the national body as concerns mount over the health of New Zealand’s high performance pathways. Dana Johannsen reports on what led to the change of heart.

Rowing NZ has abandoned its controversial stance on not selecting overseas-based athletes amid fears over the health of its high performance pathways.

The national body is overhauling its structures and selection processes in order to keep the door open for young athletes based in the US College system to compete internationally.

The move represents a major u-turn for Rowing NZ, which has previously been accused of using “scare tactics” to dissuade young athletes from taking up scholarship opportunities in the US, warning them they would not row for New Zealand if they went overseas.

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Over the past four years Rowing NZ has softened its position, opening up the lines of communication with the US-based athletes, and, in isolated cases, selecting crews from outside its national squad in Karapiro for international regattas.

In 2019 Canterbury’s Jack Lopas​, who was studying at Yale University, and Ollie Maclean​ (University of California, Berkeley) formed the first US-based New Zealand crew, pairing up in the men’s double scull at the under-23 world championships.

Next year will come a more significant shift, with Rowing NZ recruiting for an international pathway lead, whose role it will be to track the development of the close to 90 athletes based in the US College system. It is understood Rowing NZ is also planning to hold trials in the US next year for the under-23 world championships, ensuring it has more depth to draw on.

Rowing NZ boss Geoff Barry, who will leave the organisation at the end of the year, said the move to better accommodate College athletes was “not before time”.

“I can’t comment on why those decisions were made in the past, all I can say is it’s not before time for rowing.

“I think the transition was appropriate. It’s really been a gradual shift over the last four years. I think 2018 really was a wake-up period.”

The rethink comes at a time when there is significant anxiety about the health of New Zealand’s high performance pathways, following the closure of its regional performance centres (RPCs) last year.

The RPCs had operated for 20 years, providing a centralised training set-up at the level beneath the national programme at Lake Karapiro, helping promising high school rowers transition into the elite environment.

However, as the national squad grew in size, and young athletes increasingly began taking up opportunities in the US, Barry said the RPC model has become obsolete.

According to Rowing NZ figures, there are 86 young Kiwi rowers currently on scholarship at American Colleges.

Barry said with rowing being a small sport, those numbers alone speak to why Rowing NZ needed to change its approach.

“We don’t have the big numbers like netball or rugby. We have around 700 athletes competing at Maadi Cup, so we need to make the most of the talent that is there. It is an agile move.

“We have a plan in place to hold U-23 trials in the US because their season is flipped to ours, and we always expect kids to come back here in our summer and trial, well they’re just not in any shape to trial at that time effectively.

“So it’s finally acknowledging that, and it’s not just acknowledging that US scholarship athletes need a more flexible approach, it’s for others as well that want to take time out, whether that be for study and career opportunities, or to start a family.”

Auckland’s Sam Jones joined Rowing NZ’s national programme in Karapiro straight out of high school – a decision he says he now regrets.

A silver medallist in the men’s four at both the 2018 and 2019 under-23 world championships, Jones thought he was on the fast-track to the elite squad and Olympic selection. That was until he was abruptly cut from the national programme at the end of 2019 without, he claims, any explanation or follow-up.

After being cast adrift by Rowing NZ, Jones took up a rowing scholarship at the University of Washington in early 2020.

His College rowing career lasted all of two and a half months due to “really, really bad timing”, with his arrival in the US coinciding with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, his experiences in the College system allowed him to regain his sense of perspective and balance.

“It’s really good because they have these rules over in the College system that limits you to 20 hours per week of organised training. It is a rule so that kids can manage to keep on top of their study and the academic side of things,” said Jones, who is now back in New Zealand studying sport and recreation at the Auckland University of Technology.

“That was something that I found really cool, having the time to train and do my studies and also be able to socialise on the weekend. That was something I never really had in New Zealand, my experience was always rowing took up 90% of my time and I felt like I missed out on a lot.”

When the Covid pandemic forced the shutdown of Universities, Jones returned to Auckland to complete his first year online. He had the opportunity to return to the US later that year, but with the country in the grip of a divisive election and tensions in Washington at fever pitch, he turned down the offer.

But he wonders where he would be now had he taken up an opportunity to go to the US sooner.

“At the end of the day I think it would have been a lot more beneficial for my career and my future if I had have gone over a little bit earlier.

“But at that time, the message was pretty clear. If you went over to the States, that was your chance of rowing for New Zealand gone.

“It is awesome to see they have since changed, but it did take them a while to come around to it.”

Barry agrees that while there are “positives and negatives” to the College system, by ensuring athletes are offered that choice it will make rowing “a much healthier sport to be a part of”.

“One of the things that rowing had a history of, was this attitude of “you row hard and you row harder, and the cream will rise to the top”. And it worked. As it did for lots of sports, but it also created a lot of casualties along the way – being injuries, and burnout, and athlete retirements.”

“What the US scene does is people go across and get degrees, they have a managed rowing programme so they get some good rowing, but don’t get overworked and then they come back – hopefully – as well-rounded 23-24 year-olds ready for a four-year kicker at the next Olympics.”