New initiative launched to make rowing more accessible to kids

ABC NEWS (Australia)

This year's Paris Olympic Games saw the worst performance from Australia's rowing team, The Rowsellas in 36 years. So a new initiative has been launched to make the sport accessible to more kids, regardless of their background.

Transcript

00:00Georgie Rowe is one of the only members of the current Rowing Australia program who went

00:07to a public high school.

00:09Unlike most elite private schools, Georgie's school didn't offer a rowing program.

00:14So it was a chance encounter as a 24-year-old that launched the now two-time Olympian's

00:19career.

00:20If someone came up to me when I was at school and said, hey, you're really tall, you're

00:23really strong, we would love to get you in a boat, I probably would have done it.

00:27But those opportunities aren't there for the public school kids.

00:31This year's Paris Olympic Games saw the worst performance from an Australian rowing team

00:35since 1988, winning just one bronze medal.

00:38The program is currently undergoing its regular post-Games review, with a bigger emphasis

00:43on what went wrong and identifying ways to improve, like making the sport more accessible.

00:47We've got a lot of things in place and we're tweaking a few things and working with our

00:51partners and stakeholders around the states.

00:54We always want to do better.

00:56Long-term rowers John and Jeanette Gasson believe access to the sport has always been

01:00an issue.

01:01So, they founded and built Canberra's Red Shed, which has several programs, including

01:05rowing for children, no matter their background.

01:08In our last school holiday program, we had kids from 25 different public schools attend

01:14the programs, which we're really excited about.

01:16Keeping those shoulders in front of the hips.

01:19While the facility is only in its infancy, the Gassons want programs like this to bolster

01:23the depth of Australia's rowing talent.

01:26It's pretty ambitious, but somehow we want eight graduates to be in the 2032 Olympics.

01:30That's one of our goals and we're working on that.

01:33We report on that and we'll continue to do that.

01:36For Wendy Stace-Winkels, it's an opportunity she wouldn't otherwise have had.

01:40Because it's mostly a lot of private schools in the competitive, so it's great to have

01:46more public school kids doing it.

01:48In a program Georgie could only dream of when she was at school.

01:51There's so many more kids that would be so great at rowing, but if they don't have the

01:55access to it, you'll never find them.

01:58Pulling towards a better future for Australian rowing.

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