that goes away”
Chris O’Brien has been involved with the Australian team for a while now, but Rio 2016 will be his first Olympics as the man responsible for it all
W
orld rowing is in the grey no-man’s land between one Olympic campaign and the next, just nearing the half- way milestone between London and Rio. It is
a limbo Australian National High Performance Director Chris O’Brien knows well: he is a veteran of three Olympic campaigns, having coached athletes to medal positions at Athens, Beijing and London.
Rio will be his first as the man at the top of
Australian rowing, overseeing the careers of 150 budding and established oarsmen and women vying for a chance to don the green-and-gold. “Day in, day out we are preparing for Olympic
success. Rio is not something that goes away. We’re setting ourselves up now for what we want to achieve in 2016. We’ve not had an Olympic Games in South America before so there is a huge logistical aspect to it.” O’Brien is speaking from his office at the
National Rowing Centre of Excellence in the national capital, Canberra. The Australian rowing community, like just about everything in the country, is spread across vast distances: more than 3700km lie between Perth, where this article was written, and the national capital. It’s greater than the distance from Stockholm to Istanbul. The 46-year-old is about a year and a half into
INTERVIEW WORDS PETA RULE
PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE WATTS
the job, appointed after coaching the Australian men’s coxless four to a silver medal in London behind the home nation favourites. At the time, the Australian press heralded him as the man set to “lead the country’s charge towards the 2016 Rio Games.” The expectation on him is immense, but there is no hint of stress in his voice as he talks about selections and strategy. “You assess the racing context for the event and ask yourself what is the pool and talent of athletes that we have and how to they fit that context. Something like the men’s pair event, when you look at the Kiwi pair (Hamish Bond and Eric Murray) who are just performing so strongly. You take that into account, but no one is a sure thing. We were in that situation in 2008 with Drew’s (Ginn) back. We were the favourite to take the world champion medal but then he had a herniated disc in the back and that could have quite easily robbed us of that result, so it’s no different there. You have to keep backing yourself to a better job in each of the categories that you’re in.” When asked if there is sufficient depth to boat a podium-placing eight for Rio, O’Brien admitted the big boat was not something in which Australia had done well traditionally. “The eight is a complex beast. We have had some good results though – the silver at the 2000 Olympics and bronze in 2004 were highlights…
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