By Rupert Guinness with the Rowsellas in Shanghai
Twenty-five years ago on Sunday September 24, 2000, the last Olympic Games rowing strokes were pulled in competition at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (SIRC), Penrith.
The last event of the eight-day regatta in Penrith was the Men’s Eights Final at 10.30am. The race reflected all that was great about the biggest international rowing regatta in Australia since Lake Wendouree, Ballarat hosted the 1956 Olympic rowing competition.
The Men’s Eights final was won by Great Britain for their second of two Golds. It ended with Australia finishing a hairbreadth behind for the third of Australia’s three Silvers, adding to two Bronzes. It ended with the thousands walking away with tales of triumph or torment, tears of joy or despair, and minds torn with emotional highs and lows.
The regatta left an indelible mark in the souls of all who took part. And 25 years on the SIRC remains one of the greatest legacy sites of those Games and still hosts rowing, canoe slalom, triathlon, cycling, running marathon swimming and fishing events.
In the glow of reflection about the 2000 Olympics, three members of the Rowsellas’ coaching team share their memories of that memorable week at SIRC. All are from different perspectives, but all are bound by agreement that it was a regatta for the ages.
Paul Thompson MBE – Rowing Australia Performance Director
At the 2000 Olympics, Thompson was coach of the Australian Women’s Pair of Kate Slatter and Rachael Taylor that won a Silver medal behind the race favourites, Romania.
His crew formed in 1999 for the World Championships in St Catharines, Canada, where they won Bronze, firming belief that at the Sydney Olympics their medal hopes were high.
As history shows, those beliefs were sound as in they made the final and delivered.
Asked about their approach to the medal race, Thompson recounts: “We wanted to make sure that we were getting the most out of our boat, a good even pace, and racing.
“We hit the lead coming through the thousand with a good push, good rhythm, but then the Romanians went into overdrive.
“They jacked up the rate to 40 and drove it all the way. We just couldn't sustain it to hold them up.”
Thompson will never forget the roar of the mostly home crowd at SIRC where temporary grandstands lined the eastern bank – bereft of the tree line of today - from the 1000m mark on; and on the western side where officials, dignitaries and teams watched.
For the Australian crews, that roar was an irrefutable source of power for every stroke.
“You know you've got all your family, your friends, your school and university friends, everybody who knows you, especially in rowing, coming there,” Thomspon recalls.
“You're able to get a lot stronger connection [from a home crowd] … and as an athlete and coach you get to understand the broader impact that performances have on the community and Australian public, because normally you're on the other side of the world competing without that same support at a home Olympics and Paralympics, the whole city and nation is behind you.
“It's drives home how good sport can be to raise all our expectations and motivations.”
However, the unprecedented wave of attention and expectation at a home Olympics and Paralympics, however well intended, can be a potential impediment to an athlete unless managed.
At Sydney, Thompson’s crew found balance at the Olympics. His crew embraced the Games as a unique experience in their life.
Slatter, who had won Gold in the Pairs at the 1996 Atlanta Games with Megan Still and brought valued Olympic experience to Sydney, and Taylor, in her first Games, took part in the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Homebush even though they were to race a couple of days later
“Usually, the rowers don't march in the Opening Ceremony, but we felt that could bring motivation,” Thompson recalls. “To march into that stadium in front of your home crowd, and to hear the roar as you're coming through that tunnel lives with you forever.”
Notwithstanding, winning an Olympic medal is the aim of most athletes in the Games. And winning one at a home Olympic carries special legacy as Thompson was reflected two weeks ago when he was at SIRC with the Rowsellas as they wound up their final preparation there before flying out to the World Championships in Shanghai.
“The Sydney Olympics provided rowing in Australia with a fabulous legacy course,” Thompson says. “The SIRC was ahead of its time. It was the model course for [the Games in] 2004, 2008 and 2012. It's so well developed. It was a bit barren at the start but the New South Wales government and people at Penrith have really looked after it.
“It is fabulous. You've got the John Coates Pavilion recognising the huge influence John has had on rowing, the Olympic movement and sport in Australia. There is also the Legacy Obelisk with names of all the 2000 rowing and canoe slalom medallists on it.
“It's a community site. That's part of reason why we've got the Hancock Prospecting National Training Centre based in Penrith. You've got the Nepean River for long distance, and you've got the race course at SIRC; and it does our women's program proud.”
Little wonder Thompson regards the Sydney Games as a stand-out time in his rowing career. “Of course,” he says when asked although adding those same Games left the embers of one ambition for Australia’s next home Olympics at Brisbane in 2032.
“We won five medals at those Games,” Thompson explains. “We didn't get there with the Gold medal which is an interesting statistic for Australian rowing … We have never won a home Olympic or Paralympic gold medal, and that now needs to be our target for 2032.”
Xavier Dorfman – Australian Women’s Senior Coach
At the 2000 Olympics, Frenchman Xavier Dorfman won the Gold medal in the Men’s Lightweight Fours, narrowly beating Australia in one of the tightest races of the regatta.
Memories of that victory returns more regularly today, now that Dorfman spends so much time at the SIRC as a Senior Coach of Australian Women’s squad that is based at the Hancock
Prospecting National Training Centre on the banks of the Nepean River in nearby Penrith.
France won the Final 6:01.68, beating Australia (6:02.09) and Denmark (6:03.51), but their journey to the Gold began in Heats that were won by France, Australia and Italy.
From there came a nail-biting semifinal that set the scene for the mighty medal race against Australia. In their semi, Australia won in 6:00.82, just pipping France (6:0085), followed by the USA (6:05.13). The fight for the other final berths was just as tight.
Lightweight rowing is arguably the tightest in the sport. That is because crew and boat weights are the same, and on the international circuit most crews have raced each other numerous times and know one another’s weaknesses and strengths.
Come an Olympics, such as the Sydney 2000 Games, the edge of difference is ever so fine. And the Men’s Lightweight Fours event at the 200 Sydney Olympics proved how so.
The French were justified medal contenders based on their form and season record in which they won the World Cup series. However, Dorfman, rowing in the stroke seat, was far from complacent with so much at stake in a semi – that being a place in the medal race.
“Before the semifinal, I had a really bad sleep,” Dorfman recalls. “It was most stressful [time]. I never enjoyed semi-finals because you can lose a lot, but you know that it's not the time to win. We went to the race; and in my mind, we were not positive at all.
“We didn't have a good race. We started behind the Australians, and we managed to fight back all the way to the finish. I think it was one of the closest races of the Games.”
“But it also made things make clear: ‘If you want to win don’t wait.’ So, we approached the Final with determination and clear in our minds that it was the time to go.”
And “go” the French did, coming back from being one length down with 500m to go to win. Asked if it was race tactics or the ‘head and heart’ within the boat that made the difference between who won the Final or not, Dorfman smiles and says: “I think both.
“Many times, we struggled to start fast and be in front at the beginning. And this time we needed to come back. For many years, the French boat was strong in the last 500m
“With the Australians, we knew that they could have a powerful middle piece and be not so fast at the end. But in the middle with good technique and engagement, we knew they had the potential to go super-fast. So, our mission was really to stay with them.”
Dorfman said he and his French crewmates also considered the impact a home crowd would have on the Australians, as they had done throughout the Olympic regatta.
“It was quite crazy, the atmosphere,” Dorfman recalls. “When you race the last 250m, your brain is not working properly. You are pushing yourself so much. You are going by instinct, and the only target is posting a time as quick as you can. But it helps for sure.”
Winning Gold was “more” than pivotal to Dorfman’s rowing career that has taken the native of Grenoble near the Alps to Aiguebelette in the south-east where he rowed and coached, and then to Japan where he coached for almost a decade before joining Rowing Australia following the Paris Olympic Games.
His journey to Sydney was a challenge, dating back to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when lightweight rowing was introduced. Dorfman was in the French Four that won the B Final, but not his Pairs partner Laurent Porchier whose omission led Dorfman to threaten rejecting his selection. As Dorfman recalls today: “I said to him [Porchier], ‘If they don't take you, I will refuse the selection because if I'm here because of you too.’
Porchier persuaded Dorfman to accept his place in the 1996 Four, but only after agreeing with Dorfman to commit to the Pair in 1997 in a bid to make the Four for Sydney. They won the French Pairs title from 1997 to 2000 and were both selected in the Olympic Four that won the Gold medal, Porchier as bowman and Dorfman as stroke.
Today, when Dorfman is at SIRC coaching his Australian crews, there are still moments that trigger his memories of that day in 2000 when they won the Olympic Gold medal.
He remembers having to step away in a post-Final interview near the pontoon from a journalist of the French sports newspaper L’Equipe to vomit in the waters of SIRC. “This race was so hard. I pushed myself so much,” Dorfman recalls, smiling.
He remembers standing next to the one person he felt sadness for in his moment of glory. That was Simon Burgess who raced in the Australian Four. Over the years before the 2000 Games, the two become very close friends, and their families tightly knit.
As they waited for the ceremony and chatted, they agreed to present a member of each other’s family with their podium bouquets after the Medal Ceremony. Dorfman gave his bouquet to Burgess’ mother in the grandstands packed with Australian supporters.
Burgess gave his to Dorfman’s wife, Benedicte, who was with French teammates and had raced in the French Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls crew that won the B-Final.
Dorfman was so happy for winning, but he was also at pains not to celebrate it excessively, so close was his friendship with Burgess, and strong his respect for the Australian crew.
“It was hard for me one way to beat the Australians at home,” Dorfman says. “It's special when you win at home because you're in front of your family and your friends.
“The Aussies were in front of theirs’ they made a magical race, a fabulous race. A few months earlier we were probably five seconds in front of them, and they made a huge improvement in these Games. And to just beat them, just 50 metres before the finish …
“Our goal was to win, but we are close friends. There were mixed emotions. It was so incredible for us … we had never won at the Olympics, but to win against my best friend who had missed out at home … We share many jokes today, but on this I never will …”
Jurgen Grobler OBE – Australian Coaching Consultant
Jurgen Grobler says he is not sentimental, but even he concedes that any reflection of the Sydney 2000 Olympics rowing competition still pulls at his heart strings.
“I'm not so sentimental, but even for me it was very special,” says the German who has had plenty of opportunity to go down memory lane on the 2000 Olympic course this year.
In his new position as Australian Coaching Consultant, he has spent countless hours at SIRC watching crews train for the 2025 World Rowing Championships at Shanghai.
As the most successful coach in rowing history, having coached crews to Olympic medals since 1972, Grobler’s view on the 2000 Olympics says a lot about that regatta.
Grobler has every reason to feel a special glow. After all, as Head Coach of Great Britain then, the Games were a success with the British winning two Golds and one Silver medal. He was also the mastermind behind one of those Golds – as coach of the winning Men’s Fours crew from Great Britain that beat Italy and Australia respectively.
The British Four was ‘rowing royalty’ with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Matthew Pinsent and Sir Steve Redgrave for whom the win made him the first male to have won Golds at five Olympics in an endurance sport. And Grobler was rowing’s answer to Midas.
Great Britain won the Final in 5:56.24. Italy was second in 5:56.61 and Australia third 5:57.6. Less than 1.5 seconds between them. But remarkable was how the British won; especially after Redgrave, whose return at age 38 after his famous ‘shoot me’ line to anyone who sees him go near a boat again after winning Gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, was compromised by an appendix operation and his diagnosis of diabetes.
What Grobler called ‘The Project’ took another turn for concern on the water before the Olympics when the Four were beaten at the Lucerne regatta, the final lead-up regatta. It was a result he took ownership of though, admitting he “overcooked” them in training.
Still, the challenges faced by his Four before the Games did nothing to dilute the expectation in them. They were Britain’s top billing boat. They were household names.
No matter what came their way, from public interest to the curve balls, the lead up to their destiny at the SIRC only raised the expectation in them to deliver with a Gold medal, as did the resolve of their rivals to try to rip up the script and beat them.
So high was interest in the British Four, there were even stories of people outside the British rowing fraternity – even from within Australia - saying they wanted his crew to win in 2000; if only for Redgrave to achieve a feat because the story would serve the sport of rowing so well. Such sentiments were said in respect, but Grobler did not buy into them.
“I said to Steve, ‘Of course, they say that they want to be nice, but there is no compromise. They want to win as well,” Grobler recalls.
“It’s Olympics … nobody wants to say, ‘I'm just lining up. So, we had to hold that focus.
“It was a challenge for the whole crew. The pressure was on everybody around, not just Steve. There were still three other guys.
“Two of them had never won an Olympic Gold medal. Matthew was racing for a third Olympic Gold. So, we had to manage the pressure … the pressure and the media.”
After their win, the Four’s star status shone brighter for the British and international media and public. Grobler quietly turned his attention towards the Men’s Eight race.
He did not coach the Great Britain Eight – the late Harry Mahon and Martin McIlroy did. But as British Head Men’s Coach Grobler was still involved in their Olympic campaign.
Great Britain did not have a trouble-free run to the Final. Australia qualified automatically by winning their Heat over the British in second. But Grobler feels the Great Britain benefited from racing the Repechage which they won to make the Final.
After the Heat, Grobler says the British crew did not panic, but remained “very focussed on us saying, ‘We know we have done the work. We know what we have in the tank.’
“Having that extra race was quite good for us. It is not always easy to manage the time between when you race on Monday and then wait for the Final, the very last race.”
Recalling the Final, Grobler says Great Britain won it in the middle. “That was our strength,” he says, adding that Great Britain’s last 500m was to plan and not a response to the late charge from Australia. “Racing is about winning … not by how far you win.”
As history shows, Great Britian did win to sign off on a most memorable Olympic Games regatta.