Steve Trapmore – new Head of Rowing and Olympic Ambassador appointed

Olympic gold medallist to oversee rowing and inspire budding athletes - News

Thursday 28 February 2008
By Naomi Weston

“Dare to dream” is the advice Olympic gold medallist Steve Trapmore, Imperial College’s new Head of Rowing, is giving to budding athletes.

Steve Trapmore MBE has taken over from previous head Simon Cox in this strategic role, which gives him responsibility for overseeing the facilities at the Boathouse on Putney Embankment as well as coaching and expanding the club.

Steve will be working with a range of athletes from complete novices to national level rowers. He will be joined by a number of part time coaches to help with training both on and off the river.

Winning the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in the men’s eight

“I am delighted to be working at Imperial College which has such a long record of success in rowing. I want to encourage students, not just in rowing, but in all sports to see that there are possibilities to achieve great things. Louis Attrill for example started out as a novice rower at the College and ended up as an Olympic champion.”

Steve has big plans to expand rowing. “This next academic year I really want to bring in more freshers, postgraduate and international students to extend our appeal and expand our rowing scholarships programme. Following on from Oxford and Cambridge’s rowing success, we want to attract world rowers here,” he said.

“A major priority for me is to get all the rowing groups moving on, I want to improve the dynamics and pathways and make rowing fun,” added Steve.

Working with Sport Imperial, Steve is also Imperial’s Olympic Ambassador, which will involve engaging with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and other agencies in the run up to the 2012 Olympics in London. Imperial is bidding to host either the Youth Camp for the Games, a small nation’s training camp or individual team hosting.

Neil Mosley, Head of Sport Imperial, said: “We want to develop links with a nation around the Games and foster links for the whole College, including sporting, academics and cultural links. We would like to encourage more people to get involved in all aspects of sport.”

Steve started rowing at 15 at the Walton Rowing Club. By the age of 17 he was in the Great Britain Junior Team. “I wanted to do something outside of school. I was awful at every other sport! The club was hugely supportive and there was a great competitive team environment.” He added: “I want to develop the same environment here at Imperial where talent can be fostered, and I would like to encourage more people to come down to the Boathouse. There are programmes for absolute beginners through to international level athletes.”

The highlight of his career was winning the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the men’s eight, the first win for Great Britain in that event since 1912. “The fact that we won was amazing and I will cherish the positive effect our successful Olympic team had on the nation and knowing that I was a part of that.”

Adding to his success, he has also won a gold, silver and bronze medal at the World Championships as well as wins at Henley Royal regatta and the Eights Head of the River race.