JOANNE IVERSON
Women read my book and they then realise how
much had to be done, how much I had to fight just to be able to participate. The young lady you met at the door [at the Iverson Gaming offices] has medals from previous competitions at world level; she is a lightweight rower. When she first came to Philadelphia, the first phone call she made was to me to thank me for what I did to enable her to do what she has done. She is delighted to be here working for one of her idols, which is really very cool for me! I also have other top-level rowers working for us.
CI: Is it a coincidence that you’ve employed
these rowers? JI: Not at all! It’s giving young athletes a foundation
where they can train and still work. None of the three we have now work a full day, and they are guaranteed to have time off with or without pay for competitions they have to be in. It’s also not a coincidence that I was the president (and am now vice president) of the largest rowing club on Boathouse Row – which is also the biggest one in the US.
CI: Are you still involved in coaching? JI: I haven’t coached in a couple of years, but I could make a living from it if I needed to. I go out on sessions occasionally, and I still teach kids that come from other sports to row. This is because getting in to college is not that easy, and if you want to get in on
36 AUGUST 2017
an athletic scholarship you need more than one sport. So I’ll take a kid whose parents want them to have another sport, like a lacrosse player, and I’ll teach them to row well enough to be able to compete in a couple of races. Once you have that under your belt you can go to a college where they’re looking to give scholarships, and they can legitimately say they have two sports. It carries a lot of weight.
CI: Did you attend University of Pennsylvania? Do
you have an affiliation with them because of that? JI: I do but that’s not why I started rowing there. I
started coaching – I started the women’s rowing crew at Penn. I’m on their rowing board of directors, I’m involved in a lot of things with the university. I didn’t actually go to the university until 1980, which was actually funded by a bank I was working for. I was a good employee…
CI: Do you have any words of wisdom you could
share with our readers? JI: Something I say to young people is, if you have been on the starting line for anything, nothing after that is going to intimidate you. If you’ve competed and gone head-to-head against others, no business person is ever going to make you feel inferior.
You can find Joanne’s book An Obsession With Rings:
How Rowing Became an Olympic Sport for Women in the United States on Amazon.
jc/Adobe Stock
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58
