Paul Thompson
Paul is currently the Amateur Rowing Association's (GBR) Chief Coach for women and lightweights. For ten years he was a senior rowing coach at the Australian Institute of Sport, before being recruited by the ARA in 2000 as a high performance coach. Paul has coached world champion crews for both Australia and Great Britain, his crews have won medals at the last four Olympic Games, including a gold medal in 1996. In Beijing GBR crews from his squad won gold, silver and bronze medals. In 2000 he received the Australian Sport Medal and in 2004 he entered the Sport Coach UK’s Coaching ‘Hall of Fame’ when he received the Mussabini Medal for coaching British scullers and rowers to outstanding success on the world stage. In 2007 Paul was the awarded the international rowing federation's international coach of the year award. Paul has published a book about sculling and training and has also produced a DVD on rowing and sculling techniques and training.
Ivan Hooper
Ivan is an APA Sports Physiotherapist who is currently working at the Australian Institute of Sport. He has degrees in physiotherapy and sports science. Half his time is spent as a clinician and the other half is spent in the role of Sports Science / Sports Medicine Coordinator for Rowing Australia. Ivan has represented Australia in rowing, has coached elite rowers onto Australian teams, and has been a physiotherapist on Australian Rowing Teams since 1997. He was rowing physiotherapist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and has been selected as the rowing physiotherapist for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He has also worked with Australian Kayaking teams from 1998-2002, including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Frank Biller
Born and raised in Switzerland, Frank currently lives, works, and rows in the Philadelphia area. Being involved with rowing and watersports for almost 20 years, Frank is familiar with the unique European and North American rowing styles and qualities of the sport. He was a member of the Swiss national team and has coaching experience at the junior/high school and elite level. He currently coaches elites at Vesper Boat Club in Philadephia and is the assistant national team coach for adaptive rowing. Frank holds an MBA and MS from Drexel University and represents Nielsen-Kellerman for all their sports performance measurement products worldwide.
Sarah-Kate Millar
Sarah-Kate Millar is a rowing coach from New Zealand. She has had considerable experience with coaching young athletes in School programs, coaching athletes with Disabilities and club and master’s level coaching. She has coached seven NZ crews over the past eight years from Junior World’s to World University Games and Youth Olympic crews.
Her most recent experiences with coaching have been in the UK for the past four years with running a large successful school program and university crew. Her passion for coaching has lead onto coach development and recently she has completed her MSc in Sports Coaching in England. The majority of her research has been centred on rowing coaches and in particular elite international coaches in England, from the perspective of effective communication. She strongly feels that what separates good coaches from excellent ones is not the level of their knowledge, but rather their ability to communicate this knowledge to best benefit their athletes.
Dr Conny Draper
Conny is a sports scientist/biomechanist currently working at the Australian Institute of Sport, mainly for rowing biomechanics.
Following completion of her masters degree in sport science in Germany, Conny came to Australia to work at the AIS (1996-98).
At the NSW Institute of Sport (1998-2002 and 2005-2006), she worked mainly with rowing and sprint and slalom kayaking/canoeing. Whilst in Sydney, she developed and instrumented, with Professor Richard Smith from the University of Sydney, a comprehensive three-dimensional on-water rowing biomechanics system for singles and pairs. The system is acknowledged as one of the leading telemetry/analysis systems in the world. This work formed the basis of her PhD Thesis (completed in 2005).
Her main research and interests now lie in the understanding of efficient on-water rowing technique and performance measures to optimise boat movement and athlete performance.
Chris O'Brien
Chris is Head Rowing Coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport. He has undergraduate qualifications in Commerce and post graduate qualifications in Education and Sports Science. Chris has been a coach on the Australian Rowing Team since 1996 with success at Under 23 and Senior level. He is perhaps best known for his work leading up to the Athens Olympics with James Tomkins and Drew Ginn. More recently Chris experienced coaching success with Drew Ginn and Duncan Free at the 2006 and the 2007 World Rowing Championships. Prior to commencing his work with the VIS Chris had extensive experience at both Club and School level.
Shona Halson
Shona is a Senior Physiologist who is currently working at the Australian Institute of Sport, where her role involves both servicing and research. She has a PhD in the area of fatigue and overtraining and currently investigates methods for enhancing recovery and managing fatigue in athletes. Particular areas of interest include hydrotherapy for recovery and maximising sleep in athletes. In the last few years her role at the AIS has been focussed on designing and managing the AIS Recovery Centre. Shona has been selected as the co-ordinator of the Australian Olympic Committee Recovery Centre for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Julian Jones
Julian Jones has worked in Strength and Conditioning for over 20 years in positions such as Director of Coaching, Australian Weightlifting Federation and Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Julian is currently Head Coach of Strength & Conditioning at the AIS, a position he has held for nine years, overseeing the provision of Strength & Conditioning services to all AIS sport programs – currently numbering 34 programs across 26 sports. He has been solely responsible for Strength & Conditioning programming for Basketball, Swimming and Rowing over a period of 12 years, including three Olympic Games and numerous World Championships.
Julian regularly contributes to Journal and magazine publications and delivers lectures to various conferences, seminars and university courses.
Noel Donaldson
Noel has been the High Performance Director of Rowing Australia since October 2004, taking up the role after the Athens Olympics. Before joining Rowing Australia, Noel held the position of Head Rowing Coach at the VIS for 12 years, prior to which he headed the Physical Education Department at Brighton Grammar School.
Noel is perhaps best known for his coaching role with the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ which won a Gold Medal at the Lake Barrington World Championships in 1990. Since that time, they have won numerous international medals, including two Olympic Gold – in Barcelona, 1992 and Atlanta, 1996. He has also coached U23 development crews and has greatly assisted the development of rowing in Australia in various administrative roles.
Noel has more than 20 years of coaching experience.
Tony Rice
Tony has been with the AIS as an exercise physiologist specialising in rowing for several years. He has travelled regularly with National teams, incorporating recovery and GPS boat technology into his important role. Tony played in integral part in the preparation of the Australian Men’s Eight and is a member of the support team for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Andrew Dee
Andrew has been the Chief Executive Officer for Rowing Australia for the past 5 five and a half years. He has extensive experience in the Australian Sports Industry. A Senior Manager of the Olympic Athlete Program in the lead up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Andrew came to Rowing Australia in February 2003 following 12 years as a Manager within the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Institute of Sport.
Christian Renford
Christian has been the CEO of Rowing Queensland since September 2006. He joined rowing after seven years as General Manager - Sport for Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) where he was responsible for further developing and delivering national surfs sport programs such as the Australia Surf Life Saving Championships, Professional Iron Man Series, Ocean Thunder Surf Boats, and the Coolangatta Gold.
In this time at Rowing Queensland Christian has implemented a whole of sport approach, incorporating governance and organizational changes, resulting in a renewed emphasis in high performance and talent identification strategies throughout Queensland, and diversified revenue generating opportunities for the organisation. Christian has been involved in the recent Rowing Australia review into competition and also heads the Rowing Australia ROMS Commission, guiding the development of the system for the last twelve months.
Matt Dingle
Matt Dingle is a Senior Research Associate at Deakin University and Senior Fellow at the Australian National University. Matt has worked in Australia and Sweden in the marine, automotive and tooling industries and has also worked as a University Academic. He has been an active designer and research with expertise in a number of areas including applied research in advanced composites and numerical modelling, boat design and structural analysis of marine structures, general structural analysis and optimisation using finite element techniques and product development and commercialisation of new ideas.
Matt has worked closely with Sykes Racing over the past two years on the development of new hull designs and has been the principal designer of their new eight and pair mould. Matt also worked as a boat builder for Sykes Racing during the early ‘90’s and has quite a unique background and expertise in rowing boat design and construction.
Matt is also a former rower and coach and rowed for Australia at Senior World Championships.
Andrew Matheson
In November Andrew will begin his new role as the High Performance Director of
Rowing Australia after 6 years as the High Performance Manager for Rowing New Zealand. He holds degrees in Physical Education (majoring in biomechanics and exercise physiology) and Commerce (majoring in marketing). Prior to working for Rowing New Zealand, Andrew worked in sales and marketing for Unilever, Cadbury and Frucor Beverages.
Andrew has represented New Zealand in rowing, with his highest achievement being a silver medal in the coxed four at the World Championship in Tampere, Finland, in 1995. He has an interest in multi-sport, competing in the Coast to Coast and Length of New Zealand races.
Rhett Ayliffe
Rhett is the current NTC Head Rowing Coach at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport rowing program, a position he has held for 3 years. He has experience in coaching all levels of rowing having been involved with Wesley College WA, the Western Australian Institute of Sport and Sydney University Boat Club.
In 2008, Rhett’s program in Tasmania included 7 Olympians and 1 Paralympian and produced a number of international medals including Gold in the Lightweight Women’s Single Scull at the 2008 U/23 World Championships and a Bronze in the Junior Men’s Single Scull at the 2008 Junior World Championships. His personal coaching results include a number of medals at World Junior and U/23 regattas and are highlighted by a Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympic Games where he was the crew coach of the Men’s Double Scull and Head Coach of the Men’s Sculling Program.
Lyall McCarthy
Lyall is the Head National and AIS Women’s Coach. He began coaching in 1994 at the Barwon Rowing Club and joined the AIS coaching staff in 1997. In the same year, he coached the Men's Lightweight Eight to a World Championship in France.
Lyall has coached numerous medal winning crews at World Championships. This includes the first Gold Medal won by the Australian Women’s Eight in 2001 and the first Gold Medal won by the Women’s Quad in 2003. Since 2001 he has coached both sweep and sculling crews to gold, silver and bronze medals with medal crews at almost all World Championships he has coached at. In 2004 he coached the Women’s Quad Scull to the Bronze Medal at the Athens Olympics and the Women’s Eight and Pair at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
As a lightweight oarsman, Lyall competed at his first World Championships in 1978 and retired after the 1992 World Championships.
Tim Conrad
Tim first represented Australia in 1973 before going on to compete in the Men’s Eight at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. Tim began to coach at the Mosman Rowing Club while working as an Architect and continued coaching with several clubs across Sydney before he relocated to Brisbane in 1995. Whist in Brisbane, Tim coached a number of school and junior rowers at Brisbane Grammar School and University of Queensland Boat Club, a number of whom represented Australia at various World Junior and U/23 Championships.
In 2002 Tim accepted the position of Head Coach, Queensland Academy of Sport Rowing Program, a position he holds to this day. He has coached on a number of Australian U/23 and Senior A Teams with his most notable result being a silver medal with the Men’s Coxless Four at the Beijing Olympic Games.
David Amos
David is currently Vice President of both Rowing Queensland and Bundaberg Rowing Club and secretary of the Bucca Committee. His rowing career started in 1965 and was a member of the Queensland Kings Cup crews in 1969 & 1971. Following a break from rowing, he returned to the Bundaberg Rowing Club when his son started school rowing.
As an addition to his cabinet making business he started a rowing boat building & repair business, Skeeta Sculls, in 1998 and continues to repair the damage to the club fleet.
Peter Shakespear
Peter is a graduate of the University of Western Australia, has rowed at two Olympics and coached National crews at all levels from Junior to Olympic.
While coaching at the AIS his work with Dr Allan Hahn developed an Australian Talent Identification (TID) system which produced World and Olympic gold medallists. After a career in teaching he has spent the last 6 years as Performance Development Manager for Great Britain Rowing where he established World Class Start, a successful TID program which has identified and developed several World Senior and U/23 Champions. Current GB Olympic medalists in Beijing were recruited from a non rowing population by his World Class Start Program. Validated against current World Champions the TID tests are now developing the next generation of GB Olympic rowers through programs such as Sporting Giants.
Peter joined Rowing Queensland in January 2008 as High Performance Manager.
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