2 December 2016

The other day, Coach Jürgen Gröbler was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to him by Anne, Princess Royal at a ceremony organised by Sports Coach UK at Holiday Inn Hotel in Wembley.

Gröbler, who turned 70 in July, left the collapsing East Germany in 1991 to take up a coaching position at Leander Club in Henley. Among the first oarsmen he coached were Sir Steven Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, and then followed a long line of British rowers whom he coached to Olympic and World Championship medals.

‘I’m not finished yet. I am hoping Lifetime Achievement does not mean this lifetime is over. I intend to carry on. As long as I can help, I will stay. I love the job,’ Gröbler told a reporter from The Daily Telegraph. Nostalgia is not for him. ‘I don’t look back,” he said, ‘In sport, there is only one direction you must look always – and that is forwards.’

Here is a short video from the award ceremony:

Read the article in The Daily Telegraph here.