Schoolgirls’ rowing marred by scandals fuelled by a ‘win at all costs mentality’

Teachers at a Toorak school have been banned from talking to the media after claims of female rowers being targeted by boys from other private schools.

Rowing Victoria chief executive Ian Jickell says for some schools ‘the value of winning the big races is in the millions in terms of prestige and potential revenue coming into the school’.

Loreto Toorak Staff have been banned from talking to the media amid reports their senior female rowers have been targeted by boys from other elite private schools.

Loreto principal Angela O’Dwyer wrote to staff to “remind them of the importance of not making any comment to the media regarding any matters that pertain to the school”.

The Herald Sun reported on Tuesday that the female students were taunted about the behaviour of Loreto Toorak rowing staff, with posts alleging one coach urinated over a balcony onto a St Catherine’s School staff member and touched the rower’s bottoms with chalk.

Other rumours have been circulating about a former Loreto staff member taking underage girls to a Geelong pub to celebrate their win, but the Herald Sun understands the event was a reunion of older former students. The Herald Sun is not suggesting any of the allegations are true, only that they have been made.

Ms O’Dwyer described the article, which the Herald Sun stands by, as “rather unpleasant” and said many of the allegations were “unsubstantiated/incorrect”.

“At no stage have any of our rowing students been at risk in terms of Child Safety,” she wrote.

Female rowers from an elite girls’ school were sent a suicide instructional video by male rowers from another private school amid claims of a destructive competitive culture in the sport.

A young whistleblower has exposed the dark underside of rowing at some of the state’s wealthiest schools as “extremely toxic”, with wins worth millions of dollars for schools.

In one private Instagram post, senior male rowers from Caulfield Grammar sent the Loreto Toorak senior girls a YouTube video relating to a method of suicide.

The message was: “i (sic) recommend watching this and tryinf (sic) them at ur (your) next session.”

Ashleigh Martin, principal of Caulfield Grammar, said the school “has today been made aware of abhorrent commentary posted in a private social media channel. We have therefore initiated an investigation into the matter”.

While many schools have a healthy and supportive rowing environment, others invest millions of dollars to secure rowing glory. Insiders report battles between head coaches – some of whom are former Olympians – and punishing training schedules for students on lucrative scholarships.

“With around $100,000 for an eight (the size of the boat), this creates overly invested parents and rowers as well as a win at all costs mentality,” the student said.

“Personally I love rowing as a sport but the rumours and toxicity that circulates along boathouse drive definitely takes away from the sport.”

There is a feud between the first X111 teams and staff from St Catherine’s School, who are the 2022 Henley Royal Regatta champions, and Loreto Toorak, who won Head of School Girls in 2023.

This has been fuelled by inflammatory posts from Xavier College senior boys about the conduct of key rowing staff from Loreto Toorak, who have been targeted after their win on Sunday 19 March.

These posts allege one staff Loreto member urinated over a balcony onto a St Catherine’s rowing staff member. There are also claims that the Loreto staff member touched the rower’s bottoms with chalk on his hands.

The post says: “we are only joking around, if you’re going to take it seriously we will stop”.

One of the posts in a group chat.

Another message refers to someone urinating over a balcony.

Other rumours have been circulating about a former Loreto staff member taking underage girls to a Geelong pub to celebrate their win, but the Herald Sun understands the event was a reunion of older former students.

The Herald Sun is not suggesting any of the allegations are true, only that they have been made.

The student who spoke to the Herald Sun said there was “a lot of anger around selection and people felt disappointed about final crews”.

“In school rowing people are literally willing to do anything to get ahead – even if it involves starting hurtful rumours”.

Ian Jickell, CEO of Rowing Victoria, said the school environment at the elite level was “extremely competitive”.

He said school rowing members were signatories to the Rowing Victoria and Sporting Integrity codes of conduct.

“We are beginning to hear of some behaviour that may not be along the lines of the code of conduct,” he said.

“There is an obligation within the regulations to underage kids in terms of child safety standards.”

Mr Jickell said the level of competitiveness varied from school to school. “At some schools anecdotally the value of winning the big races is in the millions in terms of prestige and potential revenue coming into the school,” he said.

“It’s used as a marketing exercise and scholarships are offered to elite athletes to participate in the program.

Tim Gavel, a spokesman for Sporting Integrity Australia said he could not comment on individual complaints but that a confidential database kept track of the number and type of complaints made to the agency.

The Herald Sun has found multiple “rowing rumour pages” on social media, where students post nasty gossip about each other.

Some accounts, including one believed to be created by Geelong Grammar rowing students, are private, but have several followers.

In one TikTok post, a group of female students from a school in Melbourne’s east rowing team can be seen laughing on a bus, with the video’s caption saying: “The rowing bus gossip, guarantee your name has been mentioned.”

A former student from an inner-city Melbourne school, 18, told the Herald Sun she was “targeted” by her former teammates and labelled rowing culture as “toxic”.

“It’s highly competitive and the girls turned on me for no reason. I actually loved the sport but I constantly had anxiety before training,” she said.

“The boys’ teams have a culture of being a boys’ club and can be quite misogynistic to women.

“The whole sport and its culture needs a shake-up.”

A spokesman for Xavier said: “The culture of Xavier Rowing has never been stronger, and this years results with wins in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th eight and a great 4th in the big one being massive proof of that”

Rowing clubs pay just $1 in rent a year for the boat sheds along the river, despite elite schools reeling in big bucks to sublease them.

Many of the seven clubs along Boathouse Drive – Melbourne University, Yarra Yarra, Banks, Melbourne Grammar, Mercantile, Melbourne, and Richmond – sublease to private schools such as St Catherine’s, Brighton Grammar, Loreto, Methodist Ladies College and Ruyton.

Some also hire out for weddings and corporate events.

The City of Melbourne leases, which run until 2034, were previously $104 a year for each boat shed, but the price was dropped to $1 in 2013 for administrative reasons.

The school season has wrapped up for this year, with top contending schools competing in Perth this week at the Australian Rowing Championships.