Man who guided Olympic rowers to glory let go by Rowing Ireland

The high performance director oversaw two gold and two bronze medals over two Olympic cycles.

Rowing Ireland have decided not to renew the contract of Antonio Maurogiovanni, the high performance director who helped guide the team to four rowing medals in the last two Olympic Games.

A former rower himself, the Italian is an Italian competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Appointed in 2017, Maurogiovanni's led seven crews to qualification for Paris 2024. The team took home a gold and a bronze from the Games, and repeated those stats in Tokyo four years later.

In 2021, Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy won gold in the lightweight sculls while the women's four took bronze. This year, O'Donovan and McCarthy once more reigned supreme along with the men's double crew of Philip Doyle and Daire Doyle.

Despite all of that success, Maurogiovanni was told that his contract won't be renewed. Dominic Casey, Ireland's lightweight coach, will be the interim HP director until the post is filled.

Rowing Ireland are thought to be restructuring their approach, in response to the developments that LA 2028 will involve different categories for rowers, including Beach Sprints.

Speaking after the Paris Games, Maurogiovanni told reporters: "Athletes are the ones that deliver results, but coaches are the ones that lead the programme. We need to keep these coaches.

"That is why now myself, I haven’t spoken with the people, the decision-making people, let’s say that," he added. "It has confirmed, once again, that we are on the map of the high performance world.

"So now when we have a race and other countries see Ireland is my heat or in my semi-final, ‘oh, Ireland, keep an eye out for them', which is good. That means that, yeah, we are on the map."