Last Thursday 5 September, Greg Searle, winner of rowing medals at three different Olympic Games over a period of 20 years came to Leander Club to talk about the book he wrote about his journey as an Olympic rower. The book is titled If Not Now, When? and was well attended by almost 60 people.
This Rowing Book Talk was the first talk in Series 3 of the Leander Library Rowing Book Talks, which are held in aid of the Leander Trust, a registered charity (No. 284631) to advance the lives of young people through rowing. The charity has created opportunities for young people to fulfil their rowing potential. It is truly making a difference in the lives of young people. At the start of the talk, Irene Hewlett, Librarian at Leander told the room about a recent grant given out by the Leander Trust to the girls programme at Hinksey Sculling School. Irene had attended a training session at Hinksey in May, the Tuesday before their impressive win at the National Schools Regatta, to ask the girls what it was they did not have but the boys did. Their answer had been simple – lifting weights in the gym with one set of weights only, the boys would use all the heavy weights leaving none for the girls. So, the Leander Trust solved this problem by providing a set of weights specifically for the girls. These weights are fully paid for by the Rowing Book Talks and the generous contributions made by those attending the talks.
Greg Searle’s book takes us through Greg’s life from being instilled with very strong family values by his parents as a young boy where his parents’ determination to succeed rubbed off on him. He was offered a place at Hampton after his brother Jonny even through his dyslexia had made passing the exam difficult. It was at Hampton where Greg first encountered rowing, and where he was when he won his first pot at Thames Ditton Regatta in 1986. It was winning Henley Royal Regatta where “deep satisfaction of crossing the line first seeped into his soul” and Greg professed that that feeling never left him.
In 1992, Greg and Jonny raced the coxed pair at the Olympics in Banyoles with Garry Herbert as their cox. Having trailed most of the way, they came through to win right at the end. The video of the race was shown at the talk and watching it never gets old – it is an amazing achievement which according to Greg was because he and his brother “didn’t need to take the time and effort to be ‘nice’ to each other” and that this created a trust and openness beyond anything he had ever known. In 1996, Greg rowed in the coxless IV at the Atlanta Olympics and won a bronze medal. After his second Olympics, Greg chose to train and race in the single scull, which gave him room to start his professional career and time to spend with Jenny, his now wife. Jenny attended the talk and was able to tell us about Greg’s initial courting efforts and how her mother had seen Greg on the television and had told her that “she ought to meet a nicer rower like that boy”, not knowing at that time she was talking about her daughter’s future husband!
In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Greg rowed in the coxless pair with Ed Coode and was pipped into fourth place on the line and at that time he stopped rowing and concentrated on his career. He sailed in the Americas Cups as a grinder and participated in Superstars on television. By 2009, he had turned to commentating on rowing, but he felt that “commentary never completely captured his imagination” and he felt like a bit of a “hanger-on” when it came to the rowing squad. This led him to question whether he should make a comeback to rowing as he felt that “rowing the course is where he belonged”. This started a 3-year comeback programme for Greg, who would be aged 40 years at the time of the 2012 London Olympics. He started the comeback by winning the all-comers trials feeling a “deep satisfaction that whatever magic he’d once possessed was still there … and a degree of relief”. He trained while keeping his head down, battled with injury but was on the day of the race felt that “yes, he was ready”. We heard the ins and outs from Jenny about what it was like to support him on the day of the Olympics and how emotional it was for their whole family to go through this. Winning another bronze medal at the age of 40 years, 20 years almost to the day after winning his gold medal in the coxed pair, was a very special achievement indeed.
Since the London Olympics, Greg has been working as a performance business coach and has still been involved in rowing. He was elected a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta and has recently become a British Rowing umpire to give back to the sport that gave him so much. The book concludes with a post-Olympics list drawn up by his daughter and Greg told the audience at the talk that yes, they had got a dog (a bronze coloured ridgeback), they had been on a touring holiday in America and that he had played sport with his children more often than when he was a rower. Greg and Jenny’s dream of going on a balloon trip together is still to be realised and those in the room suggested that they should organise this now!
This talk was the first talk in Series 3 of the Leander Library Rowing Book Talks. Talk 2 of Series 3 is on 14 November 2024 with Sandy Nairne and Peter Williams to talk about their book Titan of the Thames. Tickets are available for sale here. The Rowing Book Talks are open to all and run in aid of the Leander Trust and the ticket price includes a finger buffet in the beautiful dining room at Leander Club overlooking the River Thames.
Hinksey Sculling School, below
