19 September 2023

By Greg Denieffe

During the first week of September, whilst many rowing enthusiasts were tuning in to watch the finals of the World Rowing Championships live from Belgrade, SKY TV in New Zealand broadcast a wonderful documentary called The Rowing Teacher. It tells the story of Tony O’Connor’s journey from his early days at Shannon Rowing Club in Limerick, Ireland, to leading the Kiwi Men’s Eight to Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.

On the way, Tony joined Neptune Rowing Club in Dublin, won 21 Irish championships, rowed internationally for ten years, picking up one gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the World Rowing Championships and competing at two Olympic Games (LM4-: 4th in 1996 and 11th in 2000).

Understandably, he and his New Zealand crew were closely followed by those back home in Ireland.

When his rowing career ended in 2002 – over-training being a major contributing factor – Ireland’s Rowing Director/Head Coach, Thor Nilsen, quickly recruited him into the Irish coaching setup. After getting another Olympic blazer in 2004, Tony suffered from Imposter Syndrome because he hadn’t taken the traditional route to the position of Olympic Rowing Coach. He wanted a challenge, and he wanted to combine teaching – truly his greatest love –  with running a rowing programme. And that’s how he ended up at Christ’s College, Canterbury, in New Zealand, where he taught maths and ran their successful rowing programme for 14 years.

The Rowing Teacher really comes to life when it delves into what happened next. In March 2019, Rowing New Zealand made the call that changed the course of history. The appointment of Tony O’Connor as their Men’s Eight Coach for the Tokyo Olympics took everyone by surprise, not least the squad of rowers hoping to make the boat.

The rest of the story is best left to watch in the documentary. Within days of the television broadcast, Vimeo (account required to watch) had uploaded it to their platform, as had YouTube. If you want to watch a beautiful crew in action or see how much work goes into a single race lasting less than six minutes but especially to see how much adversity needs to be overcome just to get on the start line, this is for you.

Having followed O’Connor’s international rowing career closely, I was looking forward to watching the programme. But there was a serendipitous surprise in store for me that made it even more enjoyable. Shortly after it begins, we see an old black-and-white photograph. The picture stayed on the screen just long enough for me to recognise the location as the slip of my home club, Carlow Rowing Club. It was taken in July 1987 and shows Tony O’Connor in the stroke seat of what was to become the Irish junior eight for that year’s Home International Regatta. The boys from Limerick and Waterford were in Carlow for a training weekend and with four Carlow members in the crew, their coach and his assistant were also selected to go to Wales for the annual match between Ireland, England, Scotland, and the host country. The crew finished second to England on the Talybont-on-Usk Reservoir; O’Connor’s international journey had begun, and in a way, you could say it began in Carlow. It ended (for now) in triumph, 34 years later, on the Sea Forest Waterway, Tokyo.

If that documentary whets your appetite and you would like further insight into how Tony O’Connor moulded the Kiwi Eight together and what he thinks about coaching, rowing, and life in general, I can recommend an interview he gave to Martin Cross six weeks after the Olympic final. The sound quality is poor for the first 15 minutes but is excellent for the remaining hour. The episode, called Crossy’s Corner with Tony O’Connor, Rowing Coach of the New Zealand Men’s Eight (Olympic Champions) can be found on YouTube at this link.