World Rowing e-Magazine, Spring 2006

If you ask an Italian what rowing is he most likely will come up with a one-word answer: Abbagnale.

The Abbagnale clan embodied rowing at national and international level for nearly twenty years. Three brothers, Giuseppe, Carmine and Agostino, with a seven-year gap separating the youngest from the eldest, collected a total of 34 medals at the World Rowing Championships and Olympic Games; 23 of them gold.

Growing up on a farm near Pompeii, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, the Abbagnale brothers were accustomed to hard physical labour. As there were no connections with water sports in the family, rowing was not an obvious choice, but soon after Giuseppe, the eldest of the three, began to row, it became clear that he could move a coxed pair fast. Second-born Carmine picked up rowing too, and in 1981, when he had just finished racing as a junior, coach La Mura placed both brothers in the coxed pair.

Gianni Postiglione, who as a coach to the Italian team saw more than most of the historic coxed pair crew, remembers how Giuseppe could explode into action while under pressure on the water: «Giuseppe was like a lion, very aggressive, strong and powerful.» And yet he was known as the «Gentle Giant». «If Giuseppe was like a lion in the boat, then Carmine was a panther. He was always there but you couldn’t really feel his presence,» adds Gianni. Their style was always to lead from the front.

The coxed pair’s most memorable race was probably the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, when they competed against Great Britain’s Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes in the Final. Gianni remembers it well: «It was Giuseppe’s best performance. The boat was moving really well.» The Italians headed the British until the finish line, winning

their second Olympic gold medal; the Brits won bronze. The brothers’ last medal together as a crew would be a third Olympic medal, when they took silver at the Barcelona Olympic Games

The brothers’ amazing performances had a big impact on the Italian team and helped rowing blossom in Italy - little surprise then that both brothers were awarded the Thomas Keller Medal

Davide Tizzano (stroke) and Agostino Abbagnale win gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. / Davide Tizzano (chef de nage) et Agostino Abbagnale remportent l’or aux Jeux Olympiques d’Atlanta en 1996

That same year, the newly formed brotherhood crew stormed to victory at the World Rowing Championships in Munich and went on to collect medal after medal in the same boat class for thirteen years, stamping their personality on this «Hard Man’s Event» as no one had done before or since.

“The brothers’
amazing
performances
helped rowing
blossom in Italy ”

in 1992. Carmine lasted a bit longer in the sport than his elder brother, completing another full Olympic cycle ending at Atlanta in 1996. This longevity procured him one medal more - a silver at the 1994 World Rowing Championships - and placed him one level higher than Giuseppe in the All Time Top Rowers Medal Table (as of 2005), in 5th position.

in 1997. Giuseppe continued his service to rowing as Vice-President of the Italian rowing federation and for a time Carmine coached a junior men’s team. Their example certainly played an important part in the success of the younger Abbagnale, Agostino.

But a coxed pair would be incomplete without a cox.

Throughout their rowing career, Giuseppe and Carmine were faithfully coxed by Giuseppe Di Capua, the most medalled cox in rowing history who can boast a total of ten golds, three silvers and one bronze obtained in the coxed pair event and lightweight men’s eight over a ten-year period at the World Rowing Championships and Olympic Games. Interestingly enough Di Capua stands in 3rd position in the All Time Top Rowers Medal Table, behind Sir Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent and in front Brothers Carmine and Giuseppe with cox Di Capua at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games / Les of the Abbagnale brothers. frères Carmine et Giuseppe avec le barreur Di Capua aux Jeux Olympiques de Séoul en 1988.

Unlike his sweep-rowing brothers, Agostino’s best performances were in sculling, with three Olympic gold medals in the men’s quad (Seoul 1988 and Sydney 2000) and double (Atlanta 1996) as well as two World Championship golds in the quad (1997 and 1998). His recurring battle against thrombophlebitis, which forced him out of a boat for five years after winning his first Olympic title, make his achievements all the more remarkable. The disease finally forced him to retire in the build-up to Athens 2004.

Agostino is a finalist for the 2006 Thomas Keller Award along with James Cracknell, Jueri Jaanson, Elisabeta Lipa and Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski. ■ Article inspired from the Keller Medal biographies written by Martin Cross.