ATHLETE COMMISION MEETING

That NOCs to provide free of charge training camp, full kit issue, pocket money (where appropriate) opening and closing ceremony tickets, accommodation and food (close to the Olympic Village), transport to and from course appropriate communication with teams in the village.
That NOCs give spares full recognition as Olympic Athletes
That IOC/SOCOG give spares a ('s) accreditation, which would allow access to the Olympic Village (& especially the eating areas) during the day.
That when a 'spare' is used in the Olympic regatta they automatically receive full athlete accreditation.
That each athlete is paid for throughout the 2 weeks of the Games.
That full and immediate substitution from athletes leaving the village/Games to spares is possible throughout the Games period.

That FISA make participation in the Olympic Regatta dependent on NOCs agreeing to these conditions.
That FISA continue to work with the IOC & SOCOG to ensure that the best conditions are available to spares.

World Championship Programme

We now recommend a World Championship programme 0f 24 events, with the proviso of changing ltwtW4- to a 4x.

Lightweight Maximum Vs. Average weight

No change in the current weight categories for lightweight athletes.

That the Medical Commission publish an authoritative study on the effect of weight categories in rowing as soon as was practicable.

Olympic Athletes Party

The Olympic party needs to be properly funded by the organizing Committee of the Olympic Games at the outset. The commission decided to recommend to the FISA Council that the funding of the party is included in the agreement between FISA and the organisers. The commission further asks FISA to request that National Federations avoid holding celebrations for their own teams at the same time as the Athletes Party, in order to allow more competitors to gather at this unique event.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

TV Cameras in Olympic Games

The Athletes commission were not against cameras being used in the rowing boats but thought it essential that athletes were properly involved and consulted in future decisions. There was general agreement that the quality of pictures from the on board 1x cameras was poor.

Spares

It was agreed that the treatment of spares during the 1996 Olympic Games was unacceptable and detrimental to the sport of rowing. This was a view almost unanimously supported by athletes and coaches alike. Many had signed a petition to that effect.

While the Commission accepts that - Olympic quotas remaining the same - spares should be outside the overall quota, there is much that FISA can do to make the spares life during the 2000 Games acceptable.

Review of Olympic Games and World Championships

The athletes Commission would like to congratulate FISA and ACOG for the excellent facilities @ Lake Lanier. The starting gates worked very well - with the notable exception of the finals on Saturday, when athletes did not know of the problem with the starting gates until they sat on the start! Communication could have been much improved here. On the same front, the volunteers while friendly, were only familiar with their small jobs and should have been more aware. Transport was clearly unacceptable, particularly the long waits at the course, when busses were not available. The commission questioned the effectiveness of the links between the Lake Lanier transport organisation and the central ACOG transportation system.

The Olympic party needs to be properly funded by the organising Committee of the Olympic Games at the outset.

World Championships - Strathclyde

There had been very few complaints about this Championships, which was thought to have been organised exceptionally well. The racing was of a high standard and generally better than the non-Olympic events in Tampere. The atmosphere was particularly good because all the athletes were housed together. The party was particularly praised. The condition of some of the borrowed boats was questioned, particularly the ltwt 4x used by the Ukrainian team.

Olympic Qualification system

The Commission was pleased with how this system had worked. We were happy that most of the qualification was done in the year before the Olympics at the World Championships. The system does need to be adjusted because there were too many places given to the Asian and South American qualifying regattas, which benefited the one 'strong' nation - Argentina & Japan - on those continents.

Lightweight Survey

The Commission thought that there was currently insufficient support to support a change to the system, though this may well change when more information is available to athletes.

The survey was answered by over 120 athletes from 17 nations involved in the Olympic and World Championship competition. Of the men 51% favoured retaining the current average system, while 49% wanted to change to a maximum. The women's' responses were split equally between the two systems. The most popular maximum weight for the men - suggested by 28%- was 70k. ( The majority of these respondents currently raced below 70k). The second most 'popular weight suggested was the current maximum limit of 72.5k ( by 15% of those favouring a change).

For the women the most popular weight suggested by those who favoured a maximum was 58k (by 42%) these respondents all raced at 58k, or below. The next most favoured weight was 57k (favoured by 38%). These respondents all raced at 57k or below.

Jay Feenan agreed to produce a more detailed study of the results.

It had been clear from several athlete meetings most notably that held in Strathclyde, that opinion was fairly against a change, though several of the athletes in these meetings had supported a change in their response to the survey.

It was clear that Federations had a crucial role to play in policing their lightweight athletes. In future, to ensure a good response, material should be handed to athletes at the weigh in.

World Championship Categories

Following opinions registered during athlete meetings in the summer and close season the commission has decided to change its recommendation to the FISA Council. The reasons for this change were: It would be wrong to be led by the Olympic programme, when it was not certain how this would change in the future. The effects on the participation in the sport in the bigger rowing nations of a big drop in the rowing programme were unclear. Finance was not a real issue as athletes, not Federations were already footing the bill for their own participation in Championships. The media issue was not relevant. 20, or 24 events would make little difference to the public's understanding of the sport. It was clear the Olympic events of the World Rowing Cup would happen anyway, so there would always be 'extra' events. Organisation at World Championships was clearly able to cope with 24 events and the big German regattas could easily do so, if they limited entries, as FISA has already suggested. The Athletes Commission were prepared to accept a slightly lower standard in the non-Olympic events in the last two years of the Olympic cycle because these events were crucial to the progress of younger athletes and developing nations. The Commission thought that the expertise at the Coaches Conference should be better used in order to determine the viability of events in the coming seasons.

Ranking at World Championships

The Commission decided to recommend that ranking races are held down to 'D' finals and that FISA explore ways of ranking the remaining crews following their repechage performance.

Boat Weights

The Commission were impressed with the arguments of Empacher for leaving the boat weights at the current value. Using cheaper material to construct heavier boats could have the effect of making boats less durable (as carbon fiber is stronger that glass fiber). As more labour would be involved, in laying extra layers of cheaper glass fiber, (Labour costs taking 70% of production- Empacher figures) there would be little or no savings.

Commission Membership

The retirement of M. Cross as Commission Chair was discussed. He intended to retire at the Aigbulette congress, if a suitable replacement could be found. It was important to ensure that Commission members did not all retire at once, to induct new athletes.