TSS Tokyo 2020 Olympic Newsletter
Captain’s Note
TSS has a very proud Olympic heritage with representation at almost every Olympics since the club was founded in 1957.
Our club has athletes of all ages all striving to do their best in competition and for fitness and health and while we may not all aspire to the Olympic motto of “Faster, higher, stronger”, the three Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect can be seen on many levels at Tideway Scullers School.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the club both currently and over the years in terms of volunteering, training, representing, coaching, and supporting the club.
Here’s to Tideway Scullers School and to enjoying the Olympics.
Yeah, Scullers!
Fiona Betts TSS Captain
How To Watch
Coverage of the Olympic rowing events starts this Friday 23rd (08.30 Tokyo time 00.30 UK time) with the heats of the men’s single sculls and the first finals (men’s and women’s quads) on Tuesday 27th at 10.00am Tokyo time (02.00 Tuesday UK time!!)
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/rowing/olympic-schedule-and-results.htm
Coaches’ Tips: Events to Watch
I’m most looking forward to the men’s and women’s singles events. With several different athletes winning the various World Championships and World Cups since 2019, there doesn’t look to be a clear favourite. We also haven’t seen anyone from New Zealand or Australia competing internationally since COVID struck, so there could be a few more to come out of the woodwork in every event.
Kieran Clark TSS Head Coach
I’m looking forward to the quads and singles. The quads have some high-quality crews and I want to see what we can learn from them, in the men’s singles it’s such a fascinating duel between Zeidler and anyone else to see if they can beat him!
Chris Williams
It is the single sculls…and seeing what might come out of the NZ quarter after not seeing them in competition this year.
Jack Carr
TSS 2021 Olympic Newsletter
Captain’s Note
TSS has a very proud Olympic heritage with representation
at almost every Olympics since the club was founded in 1957.
Our club has athletes of all ages all striving to do their best
in competition and for fitness and health and while we may not all aspire to the Olympic motto of “Faster, higher, stronger”, the three Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect can be seen on many levels at Tideway Scullers School.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the club both currently and over the years in terms of volunteering, training, representing, coaching, and supporting the club. Here’s to Tideway Scullers School and to enjoying the Olympics. Yeah, Scullers!
Fiona Betts TSS Captain
How To Watch
Coaches’ Tips: Events to Watch
Kieran Clark TSS Head Coach
Coverage of the Olympic rowing events starts this Friday 23rd (08.30 Tokyo time
00.30 UK time) with the heats of the mens' single sculls and the first finals (mens and
women quads) on Tuesday 27th at 10.00am Tokyo time (02.00 Tuesday UK time!!)
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/rowing/olympic-
schedule-and-results.htm
I'm most looking forward to the men's and women's singles events. With several
different athletes winning the various World Championships and World Cups since
2019, there doesn't look to be a clear favourite. We also haven't seen anyone from
New Zealand or Australia competing internationally since COVID struck, so there
could be a few more to come out of the woodwork in every event.
I’m looking forward to the quads and singles. The quads have some high-quality
crews and I want to see what we can learn from them, in the men’s singles it’s such a
fascinating duel between Zeidler and anyone else to see if they can beat him!
Chris Williams
It is the single sculls...and seeing what might come out of the NZ quarter after not
seeing them in competition this year.
Jack Carr
TSS @Tokyo 2021
TSS is represented by Saskia Budgett, GB women’s rowing reserve and by Husein Alireza, and his coach, Bill Barry, for Saudi Arabia
An email from Saskia Budgett, Reserve GB Womens Team
Hi TSS,
It’s been a bit of rollercoaster year. I contracted coronavirus in January, then Holly Nixon and I had the high of getting a bronze medal at the European Championships, but unfortunately, we just missed out on qualifying for the double at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta. Although it’s quite challenging, I feel very grateful to have been picked as spare. We’ve come from a tough training camp in Varese, Italy, and all the crews are gearing up to race shortly! It’s such an inspiring atmosphere and I’m so excited to see what Team GB can do.
Learning to row at Tideway Scullers from the age of 10 has always been such a strong foundation for me. Being part of the junior women’s squad is what made me first fall in love with the sport.
Since then, I’ve rowed at Lausanne Sport L’aviron for two years and at UCLA for 4 years before joining the GB Rowing Team in 2019. I always love representing TSS because it feels like that’s where my roots are, and the club has always been so supportive of me throughout my journey.
Thank you, Saskia
Husein A. Alireza
As the captain of Saudi Arabia’s young rowing team, Husein will be representing his country in the single sculls, and Saudi’s first Olympic single sculler. He is a member of Saudi Arabia’s Athletes Commission, presenting the country’s bid for the 2034 Asian Games.
Watch Husein here.
A Coach’s View - Bill Barry
Bill, an Olympic silver medalist, has returned to coach Husein Alireza. He coached TSS medal-winner Alan Campbell over four Olympics.
“It’s 57 years ago and I’m back in Tokyo at the Olympics. I think I am the only person in the world who is here for the second time in an official capacity, so a bit of legacy. A lot has changed since I was here in ’64, much due to Covid and restrictions, so it’s really an Olympics where we take the bus to the course and back to the hotel and stay there.
There are some huge differences from’64 – people are a lot faster because of better training with all the science and biomechanics, training is better, and psychology has moved on.
Husein is relatively new to sculling. I only I met him after he just appeared at the club one day and spoke to Tim Male. He’d discovered sport at Charterhouse and Edinburgh University, but only learned to row five years ago at Cambridge.
He has had a difficult third year of training for the Olympics. As well as injuries, he was unable to train for 11 months as Saudi Arabia was forced to impose strict Covid restrictions. Earlier this year, he suffered a family tragedy. Despite all this, he came up, and got qualified, which is the key thing.
When you’ve been an Olympian, you’re always an Olympian with the values of sportsmanship, integrity, and fairness for the rest of your life. I believe sport has no borders either. You can fight to the death in an Olympic final but remain friends.”
You can see a short video of Bill speaking about the Olympic legacy here.
Bill with Husein and the Saudi Arabia team doctor
Bronze Medalist Alan Campbell
Alan Campbell won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the first sportsperson from Northern Ireland to race in four Olympic games. He also competed at Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and Rio in 2016.
Coached by Bill Barry, he represented GB Rowing as the team’s leading single sculler for over a decade.
Shortly before Beijing, a virus forced him out of training and onto crutches for three weeks before the games, where he nevertheless finished 5th overall. At the 2016 Olympics, he was forced to retire from illness.
Alan on His Olympic Memories
TSS What was your best moment? That’s an easy question!
AC You guessed it. Winning in front of a home crowd at a venue where I had taken some of my formative strokes. When I competed with the Army, the wooden hut at Dorney Lake was the Army’s boathouse.
TSS What’s your outstanding memory about competing at the Olympics?
AC Standing on the podium and seeing my family and all the supporters. I knew most of that crowd had cheered for me and that I probably knew or had met many of them in passing. I had supporters from TSS, across British rowing, and throughout the country, including from Northern Ireland where I grew up.
TSS What was the hardest aspect?
AC Patience! Racers live to race. The time in between races is the hard bit.
TSS Any advice you’d pass on for this year’s athletes?
AC This year’s athletes have faced challenges over the last year I’m glad I avoided. However, the racing is the same. Focus on the racing, put all the other distractions to one side.
Marcello Minale said it best, ‘Keep Moving!’
TSS What difference do you think it made to you being part of Tideway Scullers? AC The club’s history with sculling. Team GB has its recent history in sweep rowing. The expectation is that best athletes were sweep rowers. At Scullers it didn’t matter about your sweep ability, it was all about sculling. My ambition was to tread an a less familiar path.
TSS is all about supporting and championing the less familiar. I owe my success to all the support I’ve had from TSS.
Mike Hennessy, aka Trigger, Athens 2004
TSS What was your overwhelming impression?
MH It was an amazing experience, but it was so difficult to get there. The hardest thing was qualifying, so many seat races, and it was a very stressful time in my life.
TSS What do you think looking back?
MH I wish I’d learned more about how to row! But I think the training is much better now and I am sure this year’s rowers will do themselves credit.
Mary with some of the Croatian team
Mary Mortimer, volunteer/ collaborator Tokyo 2021
Mary is one of only five invited by the International Organising Committee
at short notice to fly out and work at the rowing lake alongside the Japanese volunteers.
Her various roles have included bike rental for coaches, troubleshooting around the boating area and now boat weighing and the application of GPS for the 200 boats.
One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of English amongst the Japanese volunteers. Although Mary has learnt Japanese, having worked for several years for a Japanese company and then the London embassy - where for a year she was assistant to the Crown Prince, now Emperor, she has found it difficult at times. Her shift starts at 07.30 and ends at 13.00 and the journey to and from the boating lake is long. Nevertheless, she says, it’s been an extraordinary privilege to see a world-class event coming together. “It’s as if you were watching all the things that a small regatta would be required to do, but on an extraordinary scale.
My job has been to organise bikes for the coaches. On the first day, I discovered there was only one bike for each national team, but we’ve managed to sort that and other issues out since – that’s mainly what I do.
The heat is immense – 93% humidity - but I’ve been given a fantastic gilet with internal pockets in which I can put ice blocks.
It’s been fascinating to watch how the infrastructure, built around two years ago, is suddenly being put to the use it was meant for, and to have seen all the boats coming out of the containers and being rigged. When one national coach was unsure how to rig his country’s single scull, other teams stepped in to help. And it’s been great to bump into Bill and Husein here.”
TSS Olympic Legacy
Years and representation - with sincere apologies for any omissions or errors
1964 - Tokyo, Japan Bill Barry, J. James, A. W-Yerburgh, M Russell 4- Silver 1968 - Mexico City, Mexico
1972 - Munich, Germany
A Almand, RWJ Massara, CT Pierce, RJ Sweeney, RM Findlay 4+
1976 - Montreal, Canada Pauline Bird W4+
1980 - Moscow, Soviet Union Pauline Bird W4+ AF Inns 4+ G Hodges 8+ 1984 - Los Angeles, California, USA
Richard Budgett 4+ Gold AF Inns 4+ G Hodges 8+ S Bloomfield W2x 1988 - Seoul, Republic of Korea
Kate Grose, FA Johnston, JE Gough, S Smith, A Norrish W4+
1992 - Barcelona, Spain Kate Grose W8+ AJ Eyres W2x OW Hall-Craggs 1x K Marwick, S Smith W 8+ S Kirk W4-
1996 - Atlanta, Georgia, USA J S Turvey W8+
2000 - Sydney, Australia Tim Male 2x (LW) Tom Middleton 2x (LW)
2004 - Athens, Greece
Tim Male 4- (LW) Debbie Flood 4x- Silver Mike Hennessy 4-
2008 - Beijing, China
Debbie Flood 4x- Silver Natasha Howard 8+ Roderick Chisholm 4- (LW)
2012 - London, Great Britain Alan Campbell 1x Bronze Mahe Drysdale 1x Gold Debbie Flood 4x- Roderick Chisholm 2x (LW)
2016 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Mahe Drysdale 1x Gold Alan Campbell 1x
2021 – Tokyo, Japan Saskia Budgett Husein Alireza 1x
2024 – Paris, France Who will it be?