Jürgen Gröbler
Jürgen Grobler (born 31 July 1946, Magdeburg) is a German rowing coach, formerly the Olympic team coach of East Germany and later of Great Britain. He has coached crews to Olympic gold medals at 11 consecutive Olympic Games from 1972 to 2012.
Having coached East Germany to success since 1972, when Germany was reunited and the East German national sports administration collapsed in 1991, Gröbler moved to Britain, where he was employed by Leander Club and the Amateur Rowing Association. Controversy surrounded the appointment, given the suspicions that drug use had been rife in East German sports and that any senior coach would have been involved or had knowledge of the drugs programme. In an interview in 1998 he admitted that he had "difficulties" with the thought that drug taking may have caused medical problems for rowers, and that he had given "snippets" of information to the Stasi, the East German security organisation.[1] Steve Redgrave defended him, blaming the East German system for the drug use, rather than Grobler personally, in keeping with Grobler's own statement that "I have to live with what went on in East Germany. I was born in the wrong place. It was not possible to walk away."
For Great Britain he achieved Olympic golds with:
- Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in 1992 and 1996 in the pair
- James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in 2000 in the four
- Steve Williams, James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Matthew Pinsent in 2004 in the four, and
- Tom James, Steve Williams, Peter Reed, and Andrew Triggs-Hodge in 2008 in the four, and
- Alex Gregory, Peter Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs-Hodge in 2012 in the four.
In August 2000, the month prior to coaching the coxless four to gold in Sydney, he took part in a 3-part BBC documentary entitled Gold Fever. This followed him and the crew in the years leading up to the Olympics, showing the hard work and tough decisions he faced in the quest for gold.
In 2000 he won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award, and in March 2006 he was presented an honorary Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell for his contribution to British sport.[2]
See also
- Leander Club (Hon. Member).