the first time. “That was a great evolution for
us,” says president of Brazil’s Rowing Federation,
Rodney Bernardes de Araujo. They also qualified
three other boats: the lightweight men’s double
and the men’s and women’s single.
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De Araujo, however, is cautious to talk about
improvements and says that last year’s Olympic
results have actually stimulated Brazilian rowing
to make changes for the next eight years. The
eight years are part of their push towards a
podium finish at the 2016 Olympic Games which,
they hope, will be staged in Rio de Janeiro.
2008 Paralympic Games, Brazil earned a medal
in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls.
“We are hoping to show adaptive rowing
strength at the international competitions in
2009 based on the team that went to Beijing in
2008,” says De Araujo who wants to encourage
more adaptive disabled athletes to choose
rowing as their sport.
“Our national federation has hired one of
the technical coaches from the French team,
José Oyarzabal, so that with his experience in
seeking and training athletes, and the knowledge
acquired with the French Olympic team, he can
be the cornerstone of our team for the next
two Olympic cycles,” says De Araujo.
FISA’s development manager Sheila Stephens
Desbans has been working with Brazil for a
number of years and has noticed the progression:
“The Brazilian Rowing Federation has been
making many efforts over the past few years
to further develop their rowing programme
through coaching education activities, adaptive
workshops and also the general synergies around
organising and hosting a Pan American Games in
2007 and a bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.”
“The work begins now and we expect to present
better performances and revitalise the Brazilian
rowing team at the South American competitions
in 2009 and the Rowing World Cup and World
Rowing Championships in 2010.”
“There is a long, long tradition of rowing in
Brazil as in many other Latin American nations
and a great deal of accolades on a regional and
continental level, but now the federation is
trying to focus on more international results. We
saw some really interesting developments in
the past few years and we are sure we are going
to be seeing more success from Brazil.”
On top of this Brazil has been leading the way
in adaptive rowing in South America. At the
