THE WEEK BEFORE last brought news to cause waves on the water – not that you’d know it by looking at Rowing Ireland’s website.
On Tuesday 15 October, Ireland’s elite rowers and some support staff received an email from Rowing Ireland to tell them the contract of high performance Antonio Maurogiovanni would not be renewed.
Maurogiovanni has presided over an extraordinary era of success for Irish rowing, his tenure yielding four Olympic and 11 world championship gold, silver, and bronze medals. But it will come to an end when his contract expires on 31 December.
Rowing Ireland then confirmed the news of Maurogiovanni’s imminent exit to any journalist who asked, acknowledging “his unprecedented success on the water during his tenure” while giving the same reason for their decision as was emailed to the athletes.
With lightweight rowing – the class at which Irish crews have excelled across recent Olympic Games – removed from the 2028 Olympics and with the length of every race reduced by 500 metres, Rowing Ireland say they have decided for a change in direction, and are now going to develop a new high performance strategy under a new director.
Rowing Ireland also said Dominic Casey, the renowned Skibereen-based coach hailed as the mastermind behind the success of Ireland’s lightweight crews in recent years, will step up to serve as programme lead coach in the interim. The announcement came as an abrupt shock to many of the rowers in Ireland’s high performance system, as there was a sense of business continuing as usual.
Maurogiovanni jetted straight from the Olympics to the world rowing championships in Canada, and in recent weeks he had been travelling around Ireland, sitting down with rowers to discuss their future plans and whether they would stick with the programme for another four-year Olympic cycle.
While Maurogiovanni’s son worked with him in Ireland, his wife lives in Australia. He flew to visit her last week, and it’s understood the news broke shortly after he landed.
That Rowing Ireland did not issue a press release and publicly acknowledge Maurogiovanni’s work and achievements has rankled among the rowers. Paris Olympic finalist Ross Corrigan told rowing journalist Liam Gorman that this was a “kick in the teeth” to Maurogiovanni, saying it “was no way to honour a man who has put his life and soul into making sure that his crews perform at the best [standard].”
Corrigan continued, “With coaches, and especially great coaches and management, you’re going to have people who fully believe in them and people who don’t.
“Unfortunately, it seems to be that people who don’t believe have had their own personal grievances [and] have come [to the issue] on a personal front to make noise about that and really drag his name through the mud.”
It is understood that the key factor in Rowing Ireland’s decision not to renew Maurogiovanni’s contract are the findings of a post-Olympic review of the high performance programme.
As part of the review, athletes were initially asked to take part in an online survey, and were then contacted to discuss what they felt was good about the programme, and what they believed should be changed or improved. Some athletes then took part in a third round on the more technical aspects of the coaching they had received.
The justification for a confidential review in this context is that it allows athletes speak openly and honestly.
The findings of the review have been presented to the board of Rowing Ireland, but have otherwise remained confidential. Not even the athletes who contributed to the review have seen its findings.
The 42 contacted Rowing Ireland and Antonio Maurogiovanni for comment, but neither party responded.
Corrigan acknowledged in his interview with Liam Gorman that “I’m not saying the programme was not difficult, but at the end of the day, we’re there to try and win medals at the Olympics and it shouldn’t be easy for anyone.”
Rowing is an extreme sport in which athletes are pushed to their limits, and Maurogiovanni has never denied he is a tough taskmaster. One senior figure in Irish sport describes Maurogiovanni as ”quite old fashioned” in his methods, an assessment borne out by his attitude to the media.
He rarely gave interviews, and RTÉ and the written media sent to cover the 2022 European Championships in Munich were shocked to discover Maurogiovanni had instructed that no rowers were allowed to give interviews until after their interest in the competition had ended.
Maurogiovanni’s methods have been scored to occasional murmurings of criticism. Shortly after his arrival in 2017, some of the Irish rowers wrote a letter to the board of Rowing Ireland containing criticisms of Maurogiovanni’s methods. The board met to discuss the contents of the letter and ultimately backed the Italian.
Earlier this year, Brendan Griffin, a TD from Kerry, who was the junior minister of sport when Maurogiovanni was first appointed by Rowing Ireland and has since been succeeded by Thomas Byrne, tabled a trio parliamentary questions for the Department of Sport, focusing on the culture at the national rowing centre in Cork.
Deputy Griffin asked whether the minister for sport, Catherine Martin, had received contact from Sport Ireland or any involved party expressing concerns about the welfare of athletes in the high performance programme; if the minister is aware of any current legal cases involving athletes “traumatised” by their experience at Rowing Ireland; and if she had received the findings of a review into the culture of the high performance programme, which was commissioned in 2021.
A delegate from Skibbereen, Sean O’Brien, asked Maurogiovanni about these parliamentary questions at last month’s Rowing Ireland AGM, with the Italian choosing to bat them away rather than meaningfully addressing them. “I do not think this is the appropriate place to talk about this,” he replied.
Jane Wiliams was elected as Rowing Ireland’s new president at that AGM, with Barry McWilliams this month installed as its new chairperson.
A former candidate for the president role, Mick O’Callaghan of Leevale, tweeted shortly after Williams’ election, “Exciting times ahead for Rowing Ireland. A new President and Chair. The new Board need to hit the ground running. I hope they are up to it with some serious decisions to be decided including who to keep Antonio [Maurogiovanni] or Dominic [Casey] for a start.”
Less than a month on, Maurogiovanni has exited and Casey is stepping up on an interim basis. O’Callaghan’s tweet conjures images of a clash between the pair, but insiders on the high performance programme dispute this narrative: they say they never saw anything resembling a power battle between both men.
Casey’s primary work has been with the lightweight rowers, the class which has been dropped from the next Olympics. Paul O’Donovan at least is planning to adapt and compete in the heavyweight category, and it appears Casey’s renowned expertise will not be lost to the system.
But following Maurogiovanni’s exit, there is a considerable rebuilding job to be done. His son Niccolo has been working as an assistant coach, and will follow him out of the organisation. Women’s head coach Giuseppe De Vita is expected to leave too, while men’s head coach Fran Keane is returning to his teaching job haven taken a career break to prioritise rowing.
Irish rowing has enjoyed unparalleled success during Maurogiovanni’s tenure, which has earned it unprecedented investment. Rowing was the best-funded sport in Ireland during the Paris Olympic cycle, granted €3.9 million.
Maurogiovanni has been honest in linking money with success, telling the Irish Examiner last year that any Olympic medal requires an investment of €1 million per year.
Maurogiovanni’s own role in these medal successes will become clearer in his absence.
The changes to the rowing programme at the next Olympic Games always meant Irish rowing would be entering a new era in the cycle to Los Angeles, but Rowing Ireland have decided to make further changes still. Time will tell if they have made the right call.
