Creative Agency Secrets

In conversation with Duncan Holland Chief Coach, Cambridge University Boat Club

The funding issue is about whether
it is possible to row for your country and study at the same time.

We have finished talking to the ARA and David Tanner has not changed
his position and so now we are prepared to go public with our views.

We are upset about the principle that rowing training is becoming centralised. You have to be at Caversham to be in the
national team. Going back to ‘92
everyone was spread out around the country and since then the national training
has become increasingly centralised. The
agreement for this Olympiad was that it would become totally centralised for the last year only.

However, this year British International Rowing Office  changed the strategic plan and it is now 2 years centralised training and if you are not there you are not funded. By centralising training, an athlete that
wants to study is limited to choice of institutions where they can study. Therefore if you want to row for GB you can’t
study.

David Tanner is limiting funding to 2 athletes in our
current squad.

There are two arguments – does “not studying” while rowing
for your country make you faster? And is it ethically acceptable to force
people to choose between education and sport?

We don’t think it is fair, right or in the traditions of our sport to say that as soon as
you make the national team you must stop
studying and as soon as you finish being an international rower you can then go out and get on with your life and train for
a career 10 years behind the rest of
your age group.

The contrast is with the German system where athletes get training
grants (as they do here) but they
don’t get them unless they can prove that they
are making progress with both their
training and the studying for their
career. This is in complete contrast to
GB.

We don’t want this to become a “Boat Race” issue because it
isn’t just a Boat Race issue. In the big scheme of things we are arguing for the principle “must Olympic sports people be
wholly athletes and nothing else?" We
think not.

In terms of 2012 and the London Olympic Games the legacy of the games risks becoming a load of athletes with Olympic experience and no career
prospects. This is not a legacy I want
to leave behind.

NOTES TO EDITORS

This story began with an article in the Guardian Martin Cross’ article on 16 October.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 11:14 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.