Rowing is a sport with a decidedly clear status quo. Private schools. Upper classes. Expensive equipment and equally overpriced blazers, ridiculous to anyone but us. But what if you didn’t follow this status quo? What if you were an outsider looking in, but still seeking to make your mark? In fact, what if to succeed, you had no choice but to disrupt the current state of affairs? This is the story of Barbarians RC, and their President and Founder, Axel Dickinson.
Starting in 2005, Axel learned to row at Petone Rowing Club in Wellington, NZ. Coming from a family of a single mum and two siblings, he considers himself lucky to have had such a compassionate place to start the sport, without the large financial burden of many clubs. To this day, he credits the club as a key influence in developing himself as both a rower and a person. “I was hooked immediately by the sport. My family had just moved to Petone when I was 14 and the club became my home. Teenagers are looking for a place where they belong and an avenue to find success and build their self-esteem, which was certainly the case for a kid like me. After moving to a new town, trying to make friends and finding my path, rowing became everything to me. About three weeks in, I knew this would be a sport I would commit my life to”.
Quickly gaining a passion for the sport through his junior years, at 18 he was offered a place at NZ’s Rowing High-Performance Centre (RPC) to train with other up-and-coming NZ representative rowers. “I was very raw and wasn’t part of a successful junior program but I was hardworking and had some physiological potential which is probably all they saw in me at the time”. Joining the RPC was a great achievement and led to a bronze medal in 2012 at the U23 World Rowing championships in the coxed four.
Three years on, and only a year out from the 2016 Rio Olympics, disaster struck. Axel was dropped from the RPC. The surroundings of the centre were all he had known since 18 and was the only clear path forward to the National Team. Without the financial support, he began working late-night shifts at a moving company, while still training multiple times a day and completing his commitments at university.
“That pill was a hard one to swallow. I had poured everything into the sport only to be told I wasn’t considered worth the investment any longer. I think that adversity fortified my character. With no one to believe in me I had to learn to believe in myself. It was a real turning point for my own personal development and ultimately it is an experience I’m proud I went through.”
Balancing a day job, university and a high training load is the reality for most rowers in NZ who aren’t from affluent backgrounds. With no collegiate system and support wrapped around athletes outside of the elite team, it’s a vast gap for anyone to bridge. But Axel refused to give in. Although it was unheard of to make the New Zealand Elite squad without a place at the RPC, he saw no alternative than to try. And after a sombre, scabrous winter, he broke the odds, becoming the first person ever to make the NZ rowing team without a place at the RPC.
In 2016 he was selected again. His crew was a coxless four with three other athletes: Drikus Conradie, Paddy McInnes and Anthony Allen. And only one thing stood between them and becoming Olympians. The Regatta of Death.
Commonly known as the Last Chance Regatta, the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne is, for many rowers, a nightmare. With everyone present vying for a ruthlessly sparse number of qualifying slots, competition is brutal. In the four, a top-two finish in the A final was required. New Zealand were sure they were ready.
Attention. Row! The Kiwis got out to a characteristically slow NZ start: last through the first 500. Moving through the pack, they came through the 1000-metre mark in fourth. Then the 1500-metre in third. And across the line – third. It was over. One tantalising place outside of qualification. Just two seconds came between them and Rio. It was a true Olympic heartbreak.
“Our experience at the Last Chance Regatta is a tough one to relive. It’s a brutal regatta and if you don’t show up and perform to your best it’s likely your Olympic dreams end on the Rotsee. That was certainly the case for us”.
Or was it? In July 2016, two months on from the events at Lucerne, FISA, rowing’s governing body, made an announcement. 22 Russian rowers across five boat classes had been disqualified due to a doping scandal. Would this be a belated gift to Axel and his crew? In four out of five cases, the Russian boat had been withdrawn from the Games. However, in the fifth case, the Russians were given an option. FISA bestowed a lifeline. A dispensation in the rules, allowing Russia to change more than 50% of their crew, or withdraw within 24 hours. This exemption would allow the Russians to merge a combination of their remaining six athletes into a new four. And they took it. It really was over for the Kiwis. The Olympic dream had been dangled in front of their faces not once but twice, and it was agony.
“That whole Russian doping debacle was a whirlwind to go through. To be training full-time hearing drips and drabs about the McLaren Report with the chance we could be competing hanging in the air, it leaves you a little jaded.”
The McLaren Report. An article spanning 97 pages, exposing a systemic use of performance-enhancing drugs in Russian athletes, almost entirely state-sponsored. Released in July 2016, amid the Rio Olympic build-up, it created an alarming atmosphere for athletes to be competing in. With such a politically-charged dynamic, it left many feeling like pawns on the world stage.
Regardless, Axel travelled with the New Zealand Olympic team as the reserve for the men’s eight, a fantastic yet undoubtedly bittersweet achievement.
“After Rio, it was clear the door to High-Performance Rowing for me was closing and I found myself coaching back at my home club as a volunteer. It was an abrupt end to my rowing career. An end that I couldn’t foresee coming nor did I plan for, with my ambitions in rowing conditioning me into a one-track mind towards my identity as an athlete. In such a challenging time, I really credit the athletes I was lucky enough to coach for helping me through that period with their enthusiasm and love for the sport. They helped to heal my wounds, inspire me and give me a path forward”.
And sure enough, out of the gloom, a new opportunity revealed itself. Barbarians Rowing Club.
Axel, along with some fellow NZ rowers, founded Barbarians RC. Every founding member had been a part of the cull from the RPC system. By suggesting they weren’t good enough to be a part of the High-performance centre, they became the ‘Bad Boys’. With the all-encompassing nature of the sport, the lives put on hold, and the passion you have for something that ultimately breaks your heart, it commonly leaves a lot of former athletes facing identity crises after leaving the sport. The Barbarians were built to change that. Despite some initial backlash from Rowing NZ, the club proved to be an avenue to help former athletes deal with their transition out of the sport or find their love for it again. Even in some cases, it led to athletes returning from retirement back into the National Team. The ‘Bad Boys’ ultimately proved to be a force for good, enriching the Rowing culture in NZ. They even raised thousands for a Youth Mental Health charity ‘Through The Blue’. Axel himself has expressed how taken aback he feels when hearing how many athletes the Barbarians have been able to support.
To begin with, the club was just a crew of former elite rowers entering the New Zealand National Championships for enjoyment, something none of them could do since putting down their oars. Quickly, however, this group evolved into an entire club with an unbreakable culture. Although admittedly “retired and fat”, they do pride themselves in giving back to the Henley economy with their trips to The Catherine Wheel pub. They were officially recognised as a club in 2018.
Since the dramatic events at Rio, Axel has gone on to play an invaluable role in the extraordinary rise of Hinksey Sculling School. Although the club is now known as having one of the most competitive junior squads in the UK, when he first arrived in 2018, it was only a struggling community club. His work there climaxed with a group of remarkable athletes, whom he coached from the ground up, who made the final of the Britannia Challenge Cup at Henley 2021. Despite his time at the club being cut short during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unquestionable that Hinksey would not be where it is now without him.
Presently, Axel is the Director of Rowing at Aramoho-Whanganui RC in New Zealand. Since taking up this position two years ago, the club has had two of its most successful seasons on record and was recently named ‘Rowing NZ Club of the Year’. This season, Axel and his coaching team helped the squad win the overall trophy at the North Island Secondary Schools’ Championships, as well as making the most finals of any school at the prestigious Maadi Cup. They did this with a fraction of the resources of their competitors.
Clearly, since realising his purpose in life was as a coach as opposed to a rower, Axel has developed an almost unparalleled Midas touch for whatever boat he turns his coaching gaze upon.
“Aramoho-Whanganui feels like home to me. It’s such a strong grassroots club with so many passionate volunteers, hearty small-town kids coming through the door and some of the best water for rowing you’ll ever encounter. Whanganui as a region has understatedly been an incredible producer of influential figures in our sport. Coaches like Dick Tonks, Harry Mahon, and Ian Wright among others all come from this small city of 40,000, along with a wide array of Olympians over the years. It’s got such a rich history in Rowing and I feel incredibly privileged to be supported and welcomed in by AWRC to the degree my wife and I have been.”
As for the Barbarians, it is a club still thriving, with an appearance at Henley Royal Regatta this year. While there, they expressed interest in bringing a women’s crew next year. And if one thing is for certain, they ain’t going nowhere, they can’t be stopped now, ‘cause it’s Bad Boys for life.
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