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The other victorious Karlisch crew
They raced 11, won 11 in a famous Olympic gold-medal boat. Andy Hay talks to the groundbreaking members of the country's first Women's Eight title winners
New Zealand's first female rower to race at the Olympics is in the middle of dicing fallen trees with a mate on her Wedderburn property. She'd be swinging the chainsaw if not for a dodgy hip, so at 67, Stephanie Foster's doing the lugging.
Still hard at it though?
"Oh gosh, yes. Very much so. I don't sit around. I've got four acres here, two of them lawns which I'm still using my push mower to do 'cause I can't get my ride-on sorted out."
She's been in Central Otago for a good few years now so it comes as a surprise to her that in just a few weeks' time, it'll be 50 years since her Auckland crew won the inaugural title for the Women's Eight at the National Championships.
"For goodness sake! Today I'm actually feeling it [all those years]. I'd only started at the Auckland Rowing Club in 1975. I went down as a novice and got dropped in the bow seat of the eight. Bow seat of an eight! I'd never rowed anything other than a dingy in my life. It was terrifying!"
Stephanie Foster was the first woman to row for New Zealand at an Olympic Games when she lined up on Lake Casitas in the single sculls at the 1984 Olympics. Photo: NZOC
Stephanie was a quick learner though. She won the first of her nine consecutive national titles in the single sculls in 1978 and became the first New Zealand woman to medal at a World Championships with a bronze in 1982.
She still remembers her first row on the Tamaki like it was yesterday.
"It was the morning after my sister's 21st. I went down on the back of her 75cc motorbike, she dropped me off and I found my own way home. I remember coming home and my dad said, 'As long as you're home by such and such a time you can do it.'"
"The first night I went, I was home on time, but from thereafter [I] never was!"
Unsurprising when you consider her logistics from Papakura High School to rowing then home, mornings and afternoons.
"I'd run into Papakura after school, do 45 minutes working at a shoe shop, then catch the bus through to Otahuhu, then try and get a lift or run [the 4km] down to the rowing club."
After training it was back on a bus home, have dinner, go to bed before getting up at midnight to do a milk run for a couple of hours.
In the morning she'd hop on her bike for the hour-long ride to rowing, pedal back to a crewmate's house in Otahuhu, then hop on the bus to get to school.
Fiona Williamson was spending fewer hours at Onehunga High School than she probably should have been in the lead up to the championships.
She was just 15 at the time but had already spent plenty of time at the club learning to cox and drive coach boats for her father, John 'Red' Williamson.
"Dad was largely responsible for getting women's rowing started in the 70s," says Fiona. "We used to get given the old wooden boats and the shitty oars and he used to sand everything back and varnish and repaint everything.
"We had to deal with a lot of misogyny and chauvinism from the male rowers to get them to respect us. And the girls worked hard. We worked really hard."
And for the '76 Nationals, they'd clearly earned some respect after being given the most-honoured boat in the clubhouse to row, the German-made Karlisch used by the Men's Eight to win the gold at the Munich Olympics four years earlier.
" It was a beautiful boat," says Fiona. "I don't know how Dad wrangled it but it made a huge difference. We were very proud of the fact that we were in that boat."
Their season record speaks for itself. Raced 11, won 11.
Fiona's immensely proud of what their crew did in the summer of 75/76.
"It had been a hard slog getting women's rowing introduced and taken seriously. So, the fact that we won the inaugural eight meant a great deal to the crew at the time.
"We put up with a lot of crap back in those days, but you know, we survived and we won."
The victorious Auckland women's eight of 1975/76. From left: cox Fiona Williamson, Carolyn Russell, Stephanie Foster, Ruth Lidgard, Paula Thrush, Wendy Fuller, Sheryl Jackson, Hillary Wylde, Christine Andrews. You can just see the small Kiwi sticker on the side of the boat - the gold medal-winning Karlisch from 1972.
Like Fiona, Carolyn Russell was no stranger to rowing either.
Her big brother, Tony Russell, grew up coxing at Otahuhu High then Auckland RC before moving to North Shore and taking the New Zealand Eight in 1981.
She remembers the Karlisch, and its history well. How could she not?
"The Munich crew were everybody's heroes," says Carolyn. "I knew some of those guys and I knew all their names, because I'd watched the medal ceremony over and over and over. It was a real privilege to row in that boat."
Carolyn was in just her second year of rowing and just 17 when they won the title. The previous season, she was part of a Novice Four that won at Nationals on Lake Waihola.
"Tony was our coxswain. It was absolutely blowing a gale. Boats were getting swamped but Tony managed to keep us going. Had he not been our coxswain, I don't think we'd have won that race."
Time races. Carolyn's now 67. She's been living in England for more than 40 years. The day she and her crew, and a coach who believed passionately in the future of women's rowing, won on Lake Karapiro seems like a long time ago.
But their contribution was immediate.
As Red Williamson recalled before he died in 2009:
"In 1973 the club was in virtual recess with very few members. Women's rowing was introduced to boost membership and over the next few seasons the women's crews were so successful that they were major contributors to the club winning the Centennial Oar in 1976."
The Auckland Women's Eight on their way to winning the inaugural title at Lake Karapiro in 1976
The last word then goes to stroke, Carolyn Russell: " I never felt we were treated lesser than anyone else [or] that there was nothing we couldn't do that the boys could do.
"I look at rowing now, it's on a par. The women and the men."
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
- /
- International Regattas
- /
- The other victorious...
The other victorious Karlisch crew
They raced 11, won 11 in a famous Olympic gold-medal boat. Andy Hay talks to the groundbreaking members of the country's first Women's Eight title winners
New Zealand's first female rower to race at the Olympics is in the middle of dicing fallen trees with a mate on her Wedderburn property. She'd be swinging the chainsaw if not for a dodgy hip, so at 67, Stephanie Foster's doing the lugging.
Still hard at it though?
"Oh gosh, yes. Very much so. I don't sit around. I've got four acres here, two of them lawns which I'm still using my push mower to do 'cause I can't get my ride-on sorted out."
She's been in Central Otago for a good few years now so it comes as a surprise to her that in just a few weeks' time, it'll be 50 years since her Auckland crew won the inaugural title for the Women's Eight at the National Championships.
"For goodness sake! Today I'm actually feeling it [all those years]. I'd only started at the Auckland Rowing Club in 1975. I went down as a novice and got dropped in the bow seat of the eight. Bow seat of an eight! I'd never rowed anything other than a dingy in my life. It was terrifying!"
Stephanie Foster was the first woman to row for New Zealand at an Olympic Games when she lined up on Lake Casitas in the single sculls at the 1984 Olympics. Photo: NZOC
Stephanie was a quick learner though. She won the first of her nine consecutive national titles in the single sculls in 1978 and became the first New Zealand woman to medal at a World Championships with a bronze in 1982.
She still remembers her first row on the Tamaki like it was yesterday.
"It was the morning after my sister's 21st. I went down on the back of her 75cc motorbike, she dropped me off and I found my own way home. I remember coming home and my dad said, 'As long as you're home by such and such a time you can do it.'"
"The first night I went, I was home on time, but from thereafter [I] never was!"
Unsurprising when you consider her logistics from Papakura High School to rowing then home, mornings and afternoons.
"I'd run into Papakura after school, do 45 minutes working at a shoe shop, then catch the bus through to Otahuhu, then try and get a lift or run [the 4km] down to the rowing club."
After training it was back on a bus home, have dinner, go to bed before getting up at midnight to do a milk run for a couple of hours.
In the morning she'd hop on her bike for the hour-long ride to rowing, pedal back to a crewmate's house in Otahuhu, then hop on the bus to get to school.
Fiona Williamson was spending fewer hours at Onehunga High School than she probably should have been in the lead up to the championships.
She was just 15 at the time but had already spent plenty of time at the club learning to cox and drive coach boats for her father, John 'Red' Williamson.
"Dad was largely responsible for getting women's rowing started in the 70s," says Fiona. "We used to get given the old wooden boats and the shitty oars and he used to sand everything back and varnish and repaint everything.
"We had to deal with a lot of misogyny and chauvinism from the male rowers to get them to respect us. And the girls worked hard. We worked really hard."
And for the '76 Nationals, they'd clearly earned some respect after being given the most-honoured boat in the clubhouse to row, the German-made Karlisch used by the Men's Eight to win the gold at the Munich Olympics four years earlier.
" It was a beautiful boat," says Fiona. "I don't know how Dad wrangled it but it made a huge difference. We were very proud of the fact that we were in that boat."
Their season record speaks for itself. Raced 11, won 11.
Fiona's immensely proud of what their crew did in the summer of 75/76.
"It had been a hard slog getting women's rowing introduced and taken seriously. So, the fact that we won the inaugural eight meant a great deal to the crew at the time.
"We put up with a lot of crap back in those days, but you know, we survived and we won."
The victorious Auckland women's eight of 1975/76. From left: cox Fiona Williamson, Carolyn Russell, Stephanie Foster, Ruth Lidgard, Paula Thrush, Wendy Fuller, Sheryl Jackson, Hillary Wylde, Christine Andrews. You can just see the small Kiwi sticker on the side of the boat - the gold medal-winning Karlisch from 1972.
Like Fiona, Carolyn Russell was no stranger to rowing either.
Her big brother, Tony Russell, grew up coxing at Otahuhu High then Auckland RC before moving to North Shore and taking the New Zealand Eight in 1981.
She remembers the Karlisch, and its history well. How could she not?
"The Munich crew were everybody's heroes," says Carolyn. "I knew some of those guys and I knew all their names, because I'd watched the medal ceremony over and over and over. It was a real privilege to row in that boat."
Carolyn was in just her second year of rowing and just 17 when they won the title. The previous season, she was part of a Novice Four that won at Nationals on Lake Waihola.
"Tony was our coxswain. It was absolutely blowing a gale. Boats were getting swamped but Tony managed to keep us going. Had he not been our coxswain, I don't think we'd have won that race."
Time races. Carolyn's now 67. She's been living in England for more than 40 years. The day she and her crew, and a coach who believed passionately in the future of women's rowing, won on Lake Karapiro seems like a long time ago.
But their contribution was immediate.
As Red Williamson recalled before he died in 2009:
"In 1973 the club was in virtual recess with very few members. Women's rowing was introduced to boost membership and over the next few seasons the women's crews were so successful that they were major contributors to the club winning the Centennial Oar in 1976."
The Auckland Women's Eight on their way to winning the inaugural title at Lake Karapiro in 1976
The last word then goes to stroke, Carolyn Russell: " I never felt we were treated lesser than anyone else [or] that there was nothing we couldn't do that the boys could do.
"I look at rowing now, it's on a par. The women and the men."
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and Maadi Cup-winning coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
