Last weekend, as I was grinding uphill on a bike, legs protesting with every revolution of the pedals, I was pleased to find where physical strength was lacking, mental stamina was still willing and able. Pain I realised was no match for the resolute bloody mindedness and tolerance for discomfort that only sustained rowing training can ingrain, no matter how long ago it may have been. It reminded me of a quote from German rowing coach Karl Adams: “Our sport counts for nothing if you can’t take the lessons learnt in the boat into the rest of your life”.
This year will see many international rowers make that step from the boat into the ‘rest of their life’, including two times British Olympic gold medallist and this issue’s cover story, Alex Gregory. When we met Alex for the photo shoot, I was reminded of another quote, this time from Luis Ahrens, owner of the Aviz training centre in Portugal and President of the Portuguese Rowing Federation. He once told me “rowing’s greatest asset is its athletes - they are just good people”. Gregory is the embodiment of this. The perfect ambassador for the sport; cool, kind but ruthlessly competitive. Hear more from the golden boy of British rowing as he hangs up the oars, in Donna McLuskie’s excellent article.
Speaking of transitions, we provide a run-down of the significant changes made to international rowing at the 2017 FISA Extraordinary Congress in Tokyo this month. We have also been to Paris to meet the gold medal winning French lightweight double, met the Russian biomechanist Dr Valery Kleshnev and covered the Columbia University Lightweight Rowing program that has flourished under coach Nich Parker.