Reinhold Batschi OAM (born 20 August 1942 in

Sânpetru Sânpetru (German: ''Petersberg''; Hungarian: ''Barcaszentpéter'') is a commune in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania, located just north of the county seat, Brașov. It is composed of a single village, Sânpetru. The commune is located in ...

Brașov County Brașov County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its capital city is Brașov. The county incorporates within its boundaries most of the Medieval "lands" (''țări'') Burzenland and Făgăraș. Name In Hungarian, it is known ...

, Romania) is a former Romanian rower and leading Australian rowing coach. He was the inaugural Head Coach of the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

's rowing program and Head Coach of the Australian Olympic rowing teams from 1980 to 2000.

Rowing career

Batschi became involved in rowing as a result of Romania's compulsory national service. Representing Romania as a rower, Batschi won a bronze medal in the men's coxed fours at the 1967 European Rowing Championships. At the

1968 Mexico Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

, his crew the men's coxed four finished seventh. He retired from competitive rowing in 1969.

Coaching career

Batschi competed a sports studies degree at the

National Academy of Physical Education and Sport The Universitatea Națională de Educație Fizică și Sport (UNEFS), is one of the highest-profile higher education institutions in Romania, and was founded on 1 December 1922, in Bucharest. It was the tenth institution of its kind in the worl ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. In 1970, he became at coach at his rowing club in Bucharest. Batschi them moved to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

to become Head Coach at the City of West Berlin Rowing Centre. He coached the West German team to medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In 1979, he moved to Australia with his wife Florie and two daughters to take up the appointment of National Coaching Director for the Australian Rowing Council (

Rowing Australia Rowing Australia (RA) is the governing body for the sport of rowing in Australia. Established in 1925, it is the only organisation recognised by the Federation Internationale des Societies d’Aviron (FISA), the Australian Sports Commission (A ...

). In 1984, he was appointed inaugural Head Coach of the

's rowing program. He held this position until his retirement in September 2007. In 1986, Batschi coached the Australian men's eight which won the gold medal at the

1986 World Rowing Championships The 1986 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 17 to 24 August 1986 at Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Medal summary Looking at the open weight classes only, East Germany was the most successful nation ...

. This was the first and only time Australia won the men's eight at either the Olympic Games or at a World Championship. Upon retirement in 2007 he was acknowledged for "his pioneering work included a national program for technique development, a coach development program that was the forerunner of a national coach accreditation scheme, a program of international competition for up-and-coming rowers, improved selection procedures, and year-round training".

International representative coaching medal record

Olympic Games

Head Coach of the Australian Olympic rowing teams from 1980 to 2000. During his period as Head Coach, Australia won 16 Olympic rowing medals (four gold, five silver and seven bronze). He only directly coached teams in 1984 and 1988 Games. *

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

– Bronze medal – Men's eight *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

– Fifth – Men's eight *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

- Seventh - Men’s Quadruple Scull

World Championships

Head Coach in 1991 and 1999 World Championships. Results for crews coached at World Championships: *

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Bronze medal – Men's eight *

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Gold medal – Men's eight *

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Fourth – Men's eight *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Tenth – Men's four *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Eight – Men's eight *

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

Tenth – Men's eight *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Fifth – Men's coxed four *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Eleventh – Men's eight *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Eighth – Men's coxless pair *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Tenth – Men's quad scull *

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Fourth – Men's double scull; Fourteenth – Men's single scull *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Fourth – Men's quad scull

Commonwealth Games

– Gold medal – Men's eight ; Bronze medal – Men's Coxed Fours

Accolades

*1987 – OAM for his services to rowing, particularly through coaching. *1990 – inducted in the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser th ...

as a general member *1991 –

Eunice Gill Eunice Elizabeth Perrott Gill (5 January 1918 – 4 December 1987) was an Australian international netballer, administrator, coach and academic. She studied and lectured at the University of Melbourne. Life Gill was born in Armadale, Victoria in ...

Coach Education Merit Award. *2000 –

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...

*2015 – Rowing Australia renamed its National Training Centre in Canberra – The Reinhold Batschi National Training Centre *2016 – Distinguished Services to International Rowing Award. * Life Member

References

External links

*
Reinhold Batschi interviewed by Robin Poke in the Sport oral history project, National Library of Australia, 2008
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Batschi, Reinhold 1942 births Living people Romanian male rowers Olympic rowers of Romania Rowers at the 1968 Summer Olympics European Rowing Championships medalists Australian rowing coaches Australian Olympic coaches Australian Institute of Sport coaches Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia People from Brașov County Romanian emigrants to Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Transylvanian Saxon people