Mike Spracklen

Michael A Spracklen, MSC OBE (born 15 September 1937) is a British rowing coach who has led teams from Great Britain, United States, Canada to success at the Olympic games and World Rowing Championships, including the early Olympic successes of Steve Redgrave. In 2002 he was named the International Rowing Federation coach of the year.

Spracklen was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. He represented England and won a gold medal in the double sculls at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales.

Spracklen's first major success was in coaching the Great Britain double scull to silver in the Montreal Olympic Games 1976. In 1984, he coached the Great Britain coxed four to gold at the Los Angeles Olympics, Britain's first Olympic gold medal in rowing since 1948. From that crew, he took Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes to a further Olympic gold in the coxless pair (and bronze in the coxed pair) in Seoul in 1988, before moving to Canada as head coach of the national team in 1989.

Spracklen was also part of the coaching team that brought Oxford University success in the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The Canadian men's eight took gold at the 1992 Olympics under his tutelage, and Spracklen moved on to coach the U.S. squad. He inaugurated the rowing venue at the new Chula Vista Olympic Training Center. After a disappointing finishing position of fifth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic eights, he returned to Great Britain as the women's national team coach.

Spracklen was also involved in the success of two highly successful single scullers, who switched to sculling from sweep rowing. After stroking the Canadian eight to gold in 1992, Derek Porter turned to single sculling and the following year became world champion. He continued to scull, and under Spracklen's programme he won silver in the 1996 Olympic Games. Jamie Koven also took to sculling after rowing in the US men's eight under Spracklen, and in 1997, he also became world champion.

In 1997 the British women won gold in the coxless four, silver in the double sculls and bronze in the eight. In the following year, 1998 the British women achieved their first heavyweight gold at a world championship, in the double sculls. After the 2000 Olympics, where the British women took silver in the quadruple sculls, the first Olympic medal for British women, Spracklen's contract was not renewed, with the BBC reporting discontent in the squad over his methods. The silver medal in the women's quad launched a successful four-Olympic medal career for Katherine Grainger.

Spracklen began coaching the Canadian men's squad in 2000, winning the gold medal for eights at the 2002, 2003 and 2007 World Championships and at the 2008 Olympics. After leading Canada's men's eight to a gold medal in Beijing in 2008 and a silver at the 2012 London Olympics, Rowing Canada announced in the fall of 2012 that it was moving forward without Spracklen on its coaching team.