LYNETTE SKELTON - VETRAN ROWER WITH A MISSION

Seaforth (NSW) resident, Lynette Skelton, is one person the sport of rowing should be encouraging and cultivating. At sixty-one years of age, she is still passionate about her chosen sport and at the recent World Masters Games in Melbourne; she came away with three gold medals and two silver medals.

Her golds came in the women's doubles "F" grade (60-64 years); the "G" grade eights and the "G" grade quads. The latter two races were rowed as mixed events. Her silver medals were attained in the "F" grade single sculls event and a mixed eights event, once again, "F" grade.

Skelton has been rowing for the Mosman club for over thirty years now. She joined the club shortly after coming over from New Zealand in 1971.

Back in her old country, Lynette was somewhat of a trailblazer. She pestered Rowing officials to crack the glass ceiling and get one crew into a regatta.

"When I entered the sport, we had quads, but I felt we needed to match the men and wanted a single scull event", she said recently. "But the feeling over there was that an event such as the single sculls was too demanding and most un-lady-like".

Skelton started her love of rowing on the waters of Auckland Harbour. "My father had an old 12ft.clinker dinghy and I used to paddle around in it", she told this author. "It was great fun and led to a love affair not only with rowing but with the water".

(Lynette has strong connections with the Middle Harbour Yacht Club and is out nearly every weekend, on the Starters Boat.)

In New Zealand, Skelton was known as a mixture of "Mrs. Pankhurst and Don Quixote" because of her campaign to get recognition for women in rowing. One of the highlights of her career was stroking the New Zealand women's four to victory over Australian crews in 1966.

Lynette Skelton is involved at all levels of her sport. She is the current President of the Union of Oarswomen in NSW and is very active in enticing more juniors to get involved with the sport she loves.

"If Rowing is to prosper we need to see more young ones taking it up", she said. "There appears to be no lack of girls coming through these days, mostly because of the fostering of the sport in girls high schools around the district, but the boys only seem to be catered for at the GPS schools".

""I would like nothing more than to get a schoolboys eight competing here a Mosman".

Lynette Skelton rows every day and says she cannot imagine a life without rowing.

Back to index of stories

DISCONTINUED EVENTS

Perhaps with the exception of Sailing, the sport of Rowing has had more events discontinued at the Olympics than any other sport on the Games program.

Presently there are eight men's competitions rowed at the Olympics and six for women. These range from the Single Sculls events for both sexes through to the Eights, also rowed for men and women. The numbers also include Lightweight Double Sculls for men and women and the Lightweight Fours, without Cox, for men.

However when we look at the discontinued events we find there are a myriad of boats and combinations that have participated in Olympic competitions over the years.

For instance, there was the Pair-Oared with Cox that was rowed at every Games from 1900 to 1992. In fact, it is this event, at the 1900 Paris Olympics, that produced one of the most enduring mysteries of the Games: Who is the youngest person to win at the Olympics?

The Dutch rowers Roelof Klein and Francois Brandt chose a local Parisien boy to be their cox. He was chosen at random out of the crowd and hung around only long enough to be photographed after the race before returning to the streets of Paris. Unfortunately, his name and age remain a mystery but he may be the youngest winner in Olympic history.

This class also threw up two of the absolute 'greats' of rowing, the Italian Abbagnate brothers, Carmine and Giuseppe. This pair, along with cox Giuseppe Di Capua, won gold at both the 1984 and 1988 Games and picked up a silver in Barcelona.

It was also in this class that the present Australian Women's coach, Harald Jahrling, won his Olympic gold medal -- at the 1980 Moscow Games.

The Fours with Cox were rowed from 1900 through to Barcelona in 1992. The first time it was rowed, in 1900, was a farce and resulted in two races, known as First Final and Second Final. France won the First Final and Germany, the Second, but all participants in both finals were awarded prizes.

There have also been some "one off" races. One of these was a Four-Oared Inriggers with Cox race held at Stockholm in 1912. It was an all-Scandinavian affair with Denmark taking out gold, Sweden the silver and Norway the bronze.

At the Interim Games held in 1906 there were two very unusual events. They were the Six-Man Naval Rowing Boats race and the Seventeen-Man Naval Rowing Boats race. Needless to say, these competitions were never seen again on the Olympic program.

In the women's events, there have been three classes that have been discontinued. There is the Quad Sculls with cox which was rowed from 1976 to 1984; the Fours without Cox, which made only one appearance, in Barcelona, 1992; and the Fours with Cox, rowed from 1976 to Seoul in 1988.

Australia won a bronze medal in this latter event when in Los Angeles, in 1984, the team of Robyn Grey-Gardner, Karen Brancourt, Susan Chapman, Margot Foster and Susan Lee crossed over the line behind a Romanian team and a Canadian team.

Back to index of stories

When Great Britain's Steve Redgrave won his fifth Olympic gold medal at the Sydney Games, he stamped himself as being possibly the greatest rower of all time. It was a feat that no one else had ever done and certainly puts him up there, with the immortals.

Redgrave started his Olympic quest back in 1984, at the Los Angles Games. Competing in a class that is no longer featured on the Olympic program - the coxed fours - he won his first gold medal.

Then, four years later, at Seoul, he turned his hand to the pairs, and along with Andrew Holmes, won a second gold medal. Holmes had been a teammate in the '84 coxed fours victory and at Seoul they led from start to finish. A little known fact is that twenty-three hours after their win in the coxless pairs, they teamed up with Patrick Sweeney and finished third in the coxed pairs. This event is also no longer featured at the Olympics.

At Barcelona, in 1992, Redgrave found a new partner in Matthew Pinsent and this pair again won the coxless pairs event by a handsome margin, over a German team. The time differential was, in fact, over five seconds. With this win, Steve Redgrave became only the third British athlete, and the first in 72 years, to earn gold medals in three consecutive Olympics.

Redgrave and Pinsent had quite opposite backgrounds. Redgrave was a school dropout while his partner was a graduate of both Eaton and Oxford. However, the pair came together again at Atlanta and rowing in their 100th race, defended their Olympic title. The second place team were the Australian pairing of David Weightman and Robert Scott.

After Atlanta, Redgrave said he would never row again. But he couldn't get the sport that had been so good to him, out of his blood. He decided to give it one more go and decided to row in Sydney, in the coxless fours.

The rest is history. With Redgrave in the number two seat, the Brits led from start to finish and went over the line in first place, beating the Italians and an Australian crew, the new Oarsome Foursome of Bo Hanson, Ben Dodwell and twins Geoff and James Stewart.

Spectators at the Sydney International Regatta Centre roared with delight. The victorious British crew soaked up the adulation but it was for Steve Redgrave they were cheering. Many onlookers jumped into the water and one even swam out to the boat to present him with a Union Jack flag.

The team, and Redgrave, received their gold medals from Princess Anne, an IOC member. Later on, President Juan Antonio Samaranch was to award Mr Rowing a special gold pin to commemorate his incredible feat.

Steve Redgrave was later described by the British press as "The Athlete of the Century".

Back to index of stories

TEUN BEIJNEN - ROWER AND RESISTANCE HERO

History shows that the winners of the coxless pairs race at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris were a Dutch combination of Willy Rosingh and Teun Beijnen. They rowed in the final against a French team on the Seine River at Argenteuil and won by a boat length.

To celebrate the victory, the losers offered the Dutchmen champagne and after a long period of abstinence, the gesture was greatly appreciated.

Nothing strange about all that! Quite normal in fact.

But one of the winning oarsmen was to go on to gain legendary status and it wasn't entirely due to his rowing ability.

Anthonie Christiaan "Teun" Beijnen retired from rowing and in 1930 he married the famous operetta star, Erna Hrowath. She was a Slovenian singer who acted in Fritz Hirsch's company. The story goes that Beijnen and some of his friends saw a performance in Paris and they made a bet. The one that managed to marry Miss Hrowath would win a bottle of rare wine. Beijnen won the bottle.

Teun Beijnen was also a car fanatic and took part in Monte Carlo rallies.

He also played an important role in the Second World War. He was a resistance leader in Beusichem, Holland, and was confronted many times with Allied soldiers who ended up behind enemy lines after the battle in Arnham. He helped them escape along complicated routes.

Beijnen wasn't afraid to hide British soldiers and many of them ended up in his own house. This was a particularly brave move on the Dutchman's part as the German Wehrmacht was occupying most of the house. Beijnen was even able to eavesdrop on German conversations and passed on the information he gained to the Allies.

Teun Beijnen died suddenly on 13th July 1949. A paralysed heart muscle caused his death. It is thought this was caused by his addiction to smoking.

The boat in which Beijnen and Rosingh won their gold medal - the "J.A. van der Vegte" - is now being kept in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Back to index of stories