Olympic qualification:

“Team coach felt physically threatened!”

The rowing eight is based in Ottensheim.(Bild: Dostal Harald)

Things got out of hand! After the ÖRV eights failed to qualify for the Olympics at the Rotsee regatta in Lucerne, the father of two substitute eights athletes apparently lost it. The rowing association and the team coach now want to involve lawyers. Conversely, the rowing father is threatening legal action.

What happened in Austria's team tent five days ago after the failure of the red-white-red rowing eight, which was only formed last year, at the final Olympic qualifying regatta in Lucerne? A father of two replacement eights athletes, apparently outraged by the 16-second gap between the fourth-placed ÖRV boat and the winner USA, told the "Krone" newspaper on Friday: "I told Rita Hendes (the national eights team coach) to her face that her commitment was okay, but that her know-how was outdated and that you can't train a national team with 30-year-old methods."

Entry ban ignored

Assistant coach Herbert Dieplinger's account sounds less harmless: "First, the gentleman in question told the parents of other rowers before the Rotsee regatta what kind of whistleblowers we coaches were." And then: "Then not even his own sons actually wanted him to be there in Lucerne."

Eights coach Rita Hendes in the support boat.(Bild: Dostal Harald)

And Dieplinger says of the incident at Rotsee: "Despite being expressly forbidden from entering, this gentleman stormed into the tent, raved and shouted towards Hendes: 'You'll hear from us, you have to leave!"

After this incident, we can't possibly go back to business as usual.

ÖRV-Assistenztrainer Herbert Dieplinger

The 70-year-old German is said to have felt threatened by the father of the two ÖRV rowers. "That's what Hendes said to me," Dieplinger claims.

ÖRV assistant coach Herbert Dieplinger.(Bild: Harald Dostal)

 He continued: "After this incident, we can't possibly go back to business as usual. Ms. Hendes and the association are calling in a lawyer. Also to clarify how this should continue!" Conversely, the rowing father, who was confronted with the allegations by the "Krone" on Saturday, even announced libel suits: "None of this is true! I did criticize Mrs. Hendes, but from 20 meters away!"