Blending the roles as
a team manager
You will never see them on
the medals podium. They
are never the first to receive
praise when a rower is
successful. Generally living
in the shadows of their team;
often too busy to enjoy the
events; frequently up late at
night sorting out everything
from personal problems to
plumbing: the team manager.
Because rowing differs extensively
from country to country, the role
of team manager across teams is
never identical. The counselor,
the tour guide, the plumber, the
clock, the travel agent, for every
country the role means something
slightly different.
“At regattas I’m Mum for
everybody,” adds Seegers thinking
about the number of times she’s
picked up belongings left behind
on the buses and had evening
chats with individual athletes.
Christensen deals with a much
smaller team than Seegers and
came to the team manager role
through coaching after being
a rower himself (1995 World
Champion in the men’s double). “I
knew what wasn’t good at the time.
I wanted to develop the role,” says
Christensen who sees his role as
a blend of developing the mental
side of an athlete, fitting rowing
into their work or study life on top
of the travel and regatta arranging.
Sometimes it is specifically
logistics-focused in a full-time
job, like Pascale Bouton of
France. Sometimes it is a short-term and largely voluntary
position like New Zealand’s elite
team manager John Howard. For
Lars Christensen of Denmark
the role also includes the high
performance aspects of ultimately
selecting the national team. For
some, like Germany’s Kathrin
Seegers, it means organising
numbers of up to 130 athletes,
coaches and staff.
“At regattas I’m
Mum for everybody”
Seegers manages the biggest
team of the rowing nations and
is a big proponent of pre-regatta
preparation. “I try and make the
preparation for an event as good
as possible, so I don’t have much
to do during the event itself,” says
Seegers. “Then I have time to
solve unexpected problems.”
Both Seegers and Christensen
spend much of the season away
from home.
Christensen calculates that about
two-thirds of his summer is spent
on the road.
A typical day on the road starts
at 6am, going with the team for
an early training session and even
sometimes filling into a boat for
a sick athlete or accompanying
a lightweight to weigh-in. The
day continues through to evening
coaches meetings and sorting out
any big issues of the day.
For Egypt’s team manager
Mohamed Taha Ismail, his role
begins when the team is on the
road. “I have a lot to get done. I help
rowers adjust the boats, organise
the training sessions, attend team
manager meetings, encourage
rowers and help in coaching during
training camps,” says Ismail.
Ismail travels to about four events
each year with the main concern
being visa issues. This season
the team was unable to get into
Belgium for the World Rowing
© Igor Meijer
Pascale Bouton (FRA)
Under 23 Championships, the first
Rowing World Cup in Munich and
a training camp in the Netherlands
for the juniors. “The matter
depends on each embassy. It may
take 20 days to one month and
the matter becomes more difficult
during the summer,” says Ismail.
A former international rower,
France’s elite coordinator
Bouton describes her role as
organisational, not technical,
with more team logistics. Bouton
has been in the role for 14 years
and calculates a total of three
months away from home during
the year. In the winter she is
visiting new competition sites
to choose the hotels and check
food and transport. For the
summer she is on the road with
the team.
At the end of the day Bouton
says the success of her role is
simply measured by two basics:
quality and quantity of meals and
punctuality of transport at events.
