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Team GB rower launches extraordinary attack on former coach after worst Olympics in 45 years: 'He destroys your soul'

Team GB rower launches extraordinary attack on former coach after worst Olympics in 45 years: 'He destroys your soul' - PA
Team GB rower launches extraordinary attack on former coach after worst Olympics in 45 years: 'He destroys your soul' - PA

After its worst Olympic performance for 45 years, the culture war engulfing British Rowing has taken an extraordinarily toxic turn, with men’s eight bronze medallist Josh Bugajski accusing former coach Jurgen Grobler of “destroying” athletes.

In a remarkable interview, laying bare the strife behind the country’s most dismal medal return in an Olympic regatta since 1976, Bugajski alleged that Grobler, who retired in August 2020, had made his life a misery for three years with his brutal training methods.

Watch: Team GB rowers: 'We gave it all we had'

“I’m going to be brave and say something that the crew don’t want me to say,” said Bugajski, bowman of the eight that took bronze here at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway. “I cracked open a bottle of champagne when Jurgen retired. I had three very dark years under him. And I think I’d be a coward if I didn’t say that on behalf of the guys who are stuck at home, because they got a darker side of Jurgen and they aren’t in the team.

“There were some people he just seemed to take a disliking to. What he did to them was just destroy them – destroy their soul, destroy everything they had. He had complete power. If you didn’t get funding for a boat, your funding was never going to go up. I was pretty much broke for a year or so. My relationship suffered, my friendships suffered. Everything suffered. I’m very grateful to have a wonderful fiancée, a wonderful family back home. They look after me whenever they can.”

Grobler retired from his role in August 2020 - Heathcliff O'Malley
Grobler retired from his role in August 2020 - Heathcliff O'Malley

Bugajski’s searing comments exposed a divide not just within British Rowing, but within the same boat, as his crew-mate Moe Sbihi rushed to defend Grobler, under whom he won gold in Rio in 2016. “He is a winner,” said Sbihi, Britain’s flag-carrier at these Games. “He is a notorious winner, he has bred winners. Jurgen knew how to elevate people.

“I have stayed in contact with him as a human, not just as part of an athlete-coach relationship. He is somebody who p— me off as much as made me really happy. I spoke to him briefly only this week – just to say thank you to him. I feel very grateful for the legacy he has put in place.”

Grobler has always insisted that his extreme regime across three decades, which would involve camps in Spain’s Sierra Nevada where athletes trained until they were physically sick, were for his athletes’ benefit. His results spoke for themselves, with five consecutive golds in the men’s four alone. Britain’s displays in Tokyo have shown the steepest decline since his departure, as the team failed to win a single gold for the first time since 1980. Having reached eight finals, they finished fourth six times. After coming top of the rowing medals count in Beijing, London and Rio, they were 14th here.

The men's eight won bronze on Friday morning, but Team GB have failed to meet expectations at Tokyo - Getty Images
The men's eight won bronze on Friday morning, but Team GB have failed to meet expectations at Tokyo - Getty Images

For a sport that received £24.6 million in Lottery funding over the five-year Olympic cycle to Tokyo, that is a startling under-performance. “We’re a highly-funded sport,” Sbihi acknowledged. “We should be doing better.”

Brendan Purcell, British Rowing’s performance director, knew that a harsh reckoning awaited. “If you look purely at medals, we had a four-medal target,” he said. “We didn’t meet our own expectations. We can’t hide from that.”

While an unofficial “medals and more” philosophy is upheld by Team GB in Tokyo, in an attempt to distance themselves from the bullying scandals that have blighted several Olympic sports, Purcell cast doubt on whether the cultural shift was working.

“If the athletes don’t want to put themselves in that brutal environment, then we pack up shop,” he said. “We need to bring in the right athletes who want to take that step. Then we take them to the next level.”

Watch: How to raise an Olympian – UK rower Mark Hunter