National Rowing Centre of Excellence Opened

Minister for Sport Mark Arbib has officially opened the National Rowing Centre of Excellence (NRCE) this morning in Yarralumla, ACT.

The NRCE is a joint venture between Rowing Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and incorporates the core components of Rowing Australia’s High Performance Program including the AIS Residential Scholarship and National Camps Programs.

Olympic gold medallists and current athletes joined Minister Arbib, AIS Director and current acting CEO of the Australian Sports Commission Professor Peter Fricker, RA President Colin Smith and a host of other dignitaries at the opening.

The launch was also used to announce a one-off $300,000 participation funding boost from the Australian Government to aid Rowing Australia’s community rowing initiatives and programs.

The participation funding came on top of Rowing Australia’s $350,000 allocation of Australian Government funds under the Green and Gold project, an initiative which targeted the nation’s top team sports most likely for medals in London.

At the launch, Rowing Australia also unveiled its “Golden Hall”, a tribute to all of its 10 Olympic gold medal winning crews.

Rowing Australia CEO Andrew Dee said it was a landmark day for Australian rowing.

“The National Rowing Centre of Excellence is a unique concept designed to optimise the performance of our athletes now and into the future,” Dee said.

Dee also reflected on the tribute to Australia’s past Olympic champions.

“Whenever people enter the building they will see the rich history of Australia’s rowers at Olympic level and climbing the stairs each day reminds us our key high performance objective – Olympic gold medals.

“This facility also allows us to combine our community rowing activities with our high performance program under the same roof. It’s a significant step forward for our sport that would not have been possible without the ongoing support of the Australian Government.”

Rowing Australia President Colin Smith said there was a good feeling amongst the Australian rowing fraternity ahead of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We are achieving great success both on and off the water at the moment and you can really sense an acceleration as London draws closer,” Smith said.

“The National Rowing Centre of Excellence is just the beginning of a transformation for Australian rowing that has been brought about by a lot of hard work by many people. We all look forward to the success this venture will achieve in the short and long term future.”

– Rowing Australia