28 December 2021

By Göran R Buckhorn

Göran R Buckhorn has gathered some news from the month of December.

American rowing legend Carie Graves passed away on 19 December due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. She was 68.

Graves rowed as a sophomore on the University of Wisconsin rowing team in 1973. Two years later, she rowed in the Wisconsin eight that won the national championships. The same year, in 1975, Graves stroked the U.S. eight that took a silver medal at the World Championships; a boat that rowed under the name the “Red Rose Crew”.

The list of her rowing accomplishments is long. Here are some of the highlights in the eight: Olympic bronze in 1976, Olympic gold in 1984 and Worlds silver medals in 1981 and 1983. For the 1980 Olympic Games, Graves rowed in the U.S. eight that won gold at the Lucerne regatta, beating among other crews, East Germany. Due to the USA’s boycott of the Moscow Games, no American athletes competed at these Games.

Carie Graves was inducted into the National Rowing Foundation’s Rowing Hall of Fame three times: in 1984 – the 1984 Olympic eight; in 1991 – the 1980 Olympic crew; and in 2016 – the 1976 Olympic eight.

Graves was featured as a front figure in Dan Boyne’s The Red Rose Crew (2000; paperback 2005). In May 2020, HTBS wrote about the upcoming film based on Boyne’s book.

Jack Beaumont, who took a silver medal in the British quadruple sculls at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, announced his retirement from international rowing a few days before Christmas. The Tokyo crew, with Harry Leask, Angus Groom, Tom Barras and Jack Beaumont, became historic as it was the first Olympic medal in the boat class for a British boat.

Beaumont made his debut in the GB Team in 2010 and established himself as one of the best male scullers in the UK.

Due to a serious rowing accident in 2015, Beaumont spent many months in rehab. He narrowly missed out on being selected for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and became a stay-home-spare. However, when Graeme Thomas took ill, Beaumont was called in, jumped on a plane and made his Olympic debut in the quadruple sculls, which finished fifth in the final.

“I feel satisfied and content with where I’ve got to in my international rowing career and feel like now is the right time to move on. I still love rowing and want to enjoy the sport as a hobby, as I’m still very passionate about it. I would like to thank all of my coaches and support staff in the GB team, my fantastic teammates, and the British Rowing community for always backing me. I would also like to thank everybody at Leander Club, Maidenhead Rowing Club and Borlase Boat Club,” Beaumont said in a statement.

It’s this rowing hack’s guess that Beaumont now will spend more time with his Swedish girlfriend, Lovisa Claesson, who also competed at the Tokyo Games, in the single sculls. Both Jack and Lovisa have rowing Olympians as fathers. Jack’s father, Peter, rowed in the Olympic eight at the 1988 Games and so did Lovisa’s father, Per Olof (known in Swedish rowing circles as “PO”) in the coxless four. PO also rowed in the quadruple sculls at the 1992 Games.

Staying in Sweden, the Swedish Rowing Federation announced in early December that the Italian coach Marco Galeone, 47, who started his coaching career in Naples, had been appointed Head Coach for the Swedish national team. Since 2011, Galeone has had a coaching position at Rowing South Africa. He has a wealth of experience in training both male and female rowers and Para-rowers, who aim for the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and World Championships. In 2014, Galeone was appointed a member of the World Rowing Para Rowing Commission. He will start his new job in Sweden in January 2022.

British Rowing wrote on its website on 27 December that Matthew “Mat” Tarrant and Beccy Muzerie (nee Girling) have also announced their retirement from international rowing.

Mat Tarrant has been a member of the GB Team since 2007, starting as a junior at the World Rowing Junior Championships that year. He has represented GB ever since, racing on junior, U23 and senior levels.

British Rowing wrote on its website that “He has raced at 13 World Championships, winning four gold, one silver and five bronze medals.”

Beccy Muzerie began her rowing career at Cardiff University and made her senior international debut in 2017. She was a part of the silver-medal-winning World Cup and European GB Women’s Eight crews in 2018. “One of her proudest moments in the GB Rowing Team was finishing third during Olympic trials in 2020,” British Rowing wrote on its website.

At the same time as British Rowing announced Tarrant’s and Muzerie’s retirement, the federation also mentioned that Helen Glover, Polly Swann and Oliver “Ollie” Cook are taking some time off from international rowing.

World Rowing is looking for commentators. In an article on World Rowing’s website from 22 December, the organisation would like to have submissions from aspiring commentators. World Rowing writes on is website:

World Rowing commentators entertain and inform spectators, both onsite and online. While they play a critical role conveying real-time race and regatta information to fans, they also share interesting and entertaining details to keep our audiences engaged. Commentators work as part of a larger sport presentation team to deliver a holistic spectator experience.

Usually, World Rowing commentators work alongside local-language commentators, and cover both racing and the moments before and after racing. The ability to speak clearly while in an engaging and personable way is highly valued. World Rowing is looking for commentators to share their unique perspective, helping to showcase the diverse backgrounds of rowers globally.

More information, including application form, can be found here.

This is the second time World Rowing is looking for commentators. In 2018, Camilla Hadland, of the UK, won the first commentating competition which landed her a spot at the commentating team at the World Cup in Serbia. Hadland, who did a brilliant job, has done several commentating gigs after that, including the Tokyo Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.