Conal Groom

Last updated

Conal P. Groom (born May 16, 1973) [1] is an American competition competitive rower and coach. He co-founded Seattle Rowing Center with Carol Nagy, the former junior novice coach at Lake Union Crew and business manager at Pocock Rowing Center.[ citation needed ] In 2019, Groom moved to mountains outside Santa Barbara, California. [2]

Contents

Career

Groom graduated from (and rowed at) a boarding school in Massachusetts, the Berkshire School. He then studied at Georgetown University, where he rowed on the varsity crew team and served as captain of the lightweight crew team in the mid-1990s. [2]

He was, in September 2010, the head coach at Seattle Rowing Center, a rowing club devoted to youth through elite development on Lake Washington's Ship Canal in Seattle, Washington. He was hired as head coach at Lake Union Crew, another Seattle rowing club, until he left in July 2010.[ citation needed ] Before his employment at Lake Union Crew, he was director and an elite coach at Pocock Rowing Center.

Olympic rowing

Groom has placed as high as third in world championship competition (lightweight quadruple sculls, 1998), [3] and he and Steve Tucker placed sixth in the 1999 World Championships. [4] Groom and Tucker competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics, finishing 11th in the lightweight double sculls. [1]

Controversies

As of March 14, 2022, Groom is under investigation by USRowing for allegations of sexual misconduct and is prohibited from coaching or interacting with minors. [5] He has been accused on multiple occasions of abusing young rowers under his tutelage. [6] [2] Of lesser importance, the same article details how Groom employed training methods that, ultimately, were detrimental to their rowing goals.

Effective November 2, 2023, Groom was suspended from any participation in the sport for 7 years followed by a 3 year probation and issued a No Contact Order by USRowing. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Union</span> Lake in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Lake Union is a freshwater lake located entirely within the city limits of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a major part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which carries fresh water from the much larger Lake Washington on the east to Puget Sound on the west. The easternmost point of the lake is the Ship Canal Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 over the eastern arm of the lake and separates Lake Union from Portage Bay. Lake Union is the namesake of the neighborhoods located on three of its shores: Eastlake, Westlake and South Lake Union. Notable destinations on the lake include Lake Union Park, the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), and the Center for Wooden Boats on the southern shore and Gas Works Park on the northern shore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocock Racing Shells</span>

Pocock Racing Shells is a Seattle, Washington-based racing shells manufacturer, founded in 1911. Pocock Racing Shells is the oldest rowing shell manufacturer in the world.

Lightweight rowing is a category of rowing where limits are placed on the maximum body weight of competitors. According to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), this weight category was introduced "to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schuylkill Navy</span> Association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia

The Schuylkill Navy is an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia. Founded in 1858, it is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States. The member clubs are all on the Schuylkill River where it flows through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, mostly on the historic Boathouse Row.

The Marin Rowing Association, located in Greenbrae, California, US is a rowing association and non-profit organization founded in 1968 by Coach R.C. "Bob" Cumming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Lake Crew</span> American rowing club

Green Lake Crew (GLC) is a public rowing club in Seattle, Washington (USA), jointly sponsored by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department and the Rowing Advisory Council. The program is located on the southern shore of Green Lake at the Green Lake Small Craft Center (GLSCC). Green Lake Crew was chartered in 1947 and first went "on the water" in the spring of 1948.

Bryan Volpenhein, is an American rower. He is a three-time Olympian, having participated in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caryn Davies</span> American rower

Caryn Davies is an American rower. She is the winner of the 2023 Thomas Keller Medal, the most prestigious international award in the sport of rowing, and the only American to have ever won this award. She won gold medals as the stroke seat of the U.S. women's eight at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In April 2015 Davies stroked Oxford University to victory in the first ever women's Oxford/Cambridge boat race held on the same stretch of the river Thames in London where the men's Oxford/Cambridge race has been held since 1829. She was the most highly decorated Olympian to take part in either [men's or women's] race. In 2012 Davies was ranked number 4 in the world by the International Rowing Federation. At the 2004 Olympic Games she won a silver medal in the women's eight. Davies has won more Olympic medals than any other U.S. oarswoman. The 2008 U.S. women's eight, of which she was a part, was named FISA crew of the year. Davies is from Ithaca, New York, where she graduated from Ithaca High School, and rowed with the Cascadilla Boat Club. Davies was on the Radcliffe College (Harvard) Crew Team and was a member on Radcliffe's 2003 NCAA champion Varsity 8, and overall team champion. In 2013, she was a visiting student at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she stroked the college men's eight to a victory in both Torpids and the Oxford University Summer Eights races. In 2013–14 Davies took up Polynesian outrigger canoeing in Hawaii, winning the State novice championship and placing 4th in the long-distance race na-wahine-o-ke-kai with her team from the Outrigger Canoe Club. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame and in 2022 into the Harvard University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Eleanor Logan is an American rower. She is the first American rower to win a gold medal in three consecutive Olympics, a three-time Olympic champion and three-time world champion.

Peter Moir Haining is a Scottish-born rower and three-time World Lightweight Sculling Champion who competed for Great Britain and England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Yeomans Pocock</span> Designer and builder of racing shells

George Yeomans Pocock was a leading designer and builder of racing shells in the 20th century.

The Vesper Boat Club is an amateur rowing club located at #10 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1865 as the Washington Barge Club, the club's name was changed to Vesper Boat Club in 1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocock Rowing Center</span>

The George Pocock Memorial Rowing Center is an amateur rowing club famous for its namesake and its ability to produce world-class rowers.

Simon Burgess is an Australian national champion, two-time World Champion, three-time Olympian and dual Olympic silver medal-winning lightweight rower. He represented Australia ten times at World Rowing Championships between 1990 and 2002. He won world and national championships in both sculls and in sweep-oared boat classes during an eighteen-year elite level career.

Michael Francis Teti is an American Olympic rowing coach and former rower. Formerly the head coach of men's crew at the University of California, Berkeley, he is a twelve-time U.S. national team member, three-time Olympian, a member of the world champion men's eight in 1987, and is a member of the U.S. National Rowing Hall of Fame as both an athlete and coach. He has served as the US Men's head coach since June 2018.

Paul Reedy is an Australian former rower. He is a dual Olympian, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games silver medalist who competed over a seventeen-year period at the elite level. He was a fourteen-time Australian national champion across both sculling and sweep-oared boats and then coached six Australian crews to national championship titles. He later coached at the London Rowing Club and was appointed as British national Head Coach from 2009. He took Great Britain's lightweight women's sculling crews to Olympic and World Championship gold medals in 2012 and 2016.

Yasmin Farooq is an American rowing cox and the head coach of the University of Washington women's rowing team. She graduated from Waupun High School in 1984 at Waupun, Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she joined the rowing team in 1984 as a coxswain. She was a member of the 1986 national champion JV eight and served as captain and MVP of the team her senior year. A two-time Olympian and world champion in rowing, Farooq later became a college coach at Stanford University where she helped the Cardinal win its first ever Pac-12 and NCAA titles in rowing. At the University of Washington, her team swept the NCAA Championship for the first-time in history, then repeated the feat in 2019 setting NCAA records in all three events. She has been named Pac-12 coach of the year six times and national coach of the year three times. She was inducted into the USRowing Hall of Fame in 2014 and awarded the Ernestine Bayer Woman of the Year award by USRowing in 2017. In 2021, Farooq was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Lofgren</span>

Esther Ruth Lofgren is an American rower and an Olympic gold medalist. She won the gold medal in the women's eight at the 2012 Summer Games in London. Lofgren is a graduate of Harvard College, where she rowed for Radcliffe and was a two-time All-American. She is an eight-time member of the U.S. National Rowing Team and a seven-time World Championship medalist.

Paul Anthony Thompson MBE is an Australian elite level rowing coach and former rower. As a rower he was an Australian under-age champion, won a silver medal at the 1985 U23 World Championships and rowed in senior King's Cup eights for both South Australia and New South Wales. He has coached Australian and British crews to World Championship titles and Olympic medals including taking Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. By 2012 he was Great Britain's head coach for women and lightweights and took British crews to three gold and two silver medals at London 2012. Since 2022 he has been Rowing Australia's High Performance Director.

The United States National Women’s Rowing Team is a select group of elite female athletes who represent the United States in international rowing competitions. The team first competed at the Olympics in 1976 and has had a multitude of successes. The implementation of Title IX during the 1970s had a large and positive impact on women’s collegiate rowing, and allowed for a growth in interest and talent in order for the creation of the national team. The team is selected through a competitive, in-depth process that is facilitated by USRowing each year. Tom Terhaar has been the national women’s head coach since 2001, and has been a part of the team's success in the past decade. The team’s eight (8+) has won the gold medal at every summer Olympics since 2004, and won the World Rowing Championships from 2005 until 2016. The eight (8+) also presently holds the world record at 5:54.160.

References

  1. 1 2 "Conal Groom". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Garcia-Roberts, Gus (July 14, 2023). "A California coach accused, again and again". SFGATE . Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  3. "1998 World Championships Results". USRowing. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  4. Millman, Chris (September 7, 2000). "Can They? Will They? High expectations for U.S. Olympic crews". The Independent Rowing News. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  5. "Banned List 03142022[10] (PDF)" (PDF). USRowing. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  6. "A coach accused, again and again". Washington Post. July 13, 2023. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  7. "USRowing Exclusion List". USRowing. Retrieved December 18, 2023.