Games hero Reed quits after trial failure
Triple Olympic champion Pete Reed is hanging up his oars, 10 months after his last competitive victory in the men’s eights at the Rio Games.
Naval lieutenant Reed, who also won five world titles, had planned to continue on to Tokyo 2020, but has quit suddenly after failing a trial for the British men’s eights.
Reed, who won Olympic gold at Beijing 2008, London
2012 and Rio 2016, decided that he would be unable to rediscover his best form following surgery on both hips at the beginning of last year.
Though the problem has reduced his flexibility and prevents him from rowing a full-length stroke, he returned to the boat this spring ahead of the crucial 2000m ergometer test two weeks ago.
His time in it was not enough to convince either Reed or Britain’s coach, Jurgen Grobler, that he should carry on. “I got 5-54 [5min 54sec], and the only two people who weren’t happy with that were me and Jurgen,” said Reed. With a surfeit of bow-side oarsmen in the squad, the time put him in a race-off for the squad – and he came last, sending him to a single for the April 14 trials. Reed left on Saturday for his rest day, planning to talk sculling with Grobler on the Monday.
But while driving home, he mulled his situation over and called Fred Smallbone, the 1976 Olympic medallist and Reed’s long-time mentor. “It was just to chat things through with him,” said Reed who won his Olympic titles in the coxless four at Beijing and London and in the eight at Rio.
“It’s a big decision and I really hadn’t given it much thought. But it felt right. I was excited by other options and he said to me, ‘sounds like you’ve made your decision already’ and by the time I got home I kind of had.”
“You can’t tell an athlete when to retire. For me, this feels like the right time. I just couldn’t see that I was making good and fast enough progress to be back at the top of the team. I didn’t want to be in the bottom group of bow-siders trying to make a boat, I wanted to be at the top, speeding crews up, helping them win Olympic medals.”
Surprisingly, Grobler was relieved. “He said he never would have kicked me off the team, but he couldn’t see a way back either,” says Reed. “Then I sat out on the balcony at Caversham, watching the guys boating, on a beautiful day. Having made my decision, and it felt good.”
Now he plans to have some time off, discuss a serious future with the Navy, and find out what else he wants to do with the rest of his life.
He said: “I want to thank the Royal Navy for their constant support from way back before my career began. They took a big chance with me as a young man with potential and I look forward to resuming my military career following my retirement from rowing. It is a relief to call time and it feels absolutely right to do so now. I look forward to going to bed after 9pm.”