USRowing Hires Curtis Jordan as High Performance Director

September 05, 2012

PRINCETON, N.J. – USRowing is pleased to announce that Curtis Jordan has been selected as the organization’s high performance director. Jordan, who will assume his new position in Princeton this month, joins USRowing with more than 30 years of experience as an elite international and intercollegiate coach.

“I’m very proud to be offered this position,” said Jordan. “I’ve been involved with USRowing as a coach and high performance committee member, or some ad hoc way, since I first started coaching, so the idea of taking on this role and being of some help in the process of formulating a plan and a program for 2016 is a little bit daunting, but very exciting.”

Jordan served as Australia’s New South Wales Institute of Sport’s Head Rowing Coach. He coached the lightweight men’s eight to silver in 2010 and gold in 2011. This past year, he coached the men’s eight, culminating in a sixth-place finish at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. It was Jordan’s fifth Olympic stint, having coached the U.S. men’s coxed four in 1988 and 1992, the men’s four and bronze-medal lightweight four in 1996, and the lightweight men’s four in 2000.

Jordan’s international coaching experience also includes the junior world championships, Pan American Games and Goodwill Games. He made his mark at Princeton University, having spent nearly three decades coaching the men’s and women’s programs from 1980-2009. Jordan is the all-time winningest coach in the 130 years of Princeton heavyweight crew and is also No. 2 in career wins among any coach in the history of Princeton open women’s crew.

He has served on several committees including the FISA Competitive Commission, USRowing High Performance Committee and the men’s and women’s Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges.

In his new role, Jordan will be working under the direction of USRowing Chief Executive Officer Glenn Merry and advised by USRowing’s High Performance Committee, directing and managing the programs and staff related to the USRowing national teams, developing a high performance plan and managing the head coaching staff. Jordan will also assist the CEO with stakeholder relations with the United States Olympic Committee, National Rowing Foundation and FISA, rowing’s international governing body.

“I am very excited to have Curtis join the USRowing team,” said Merry. “He brings tremendous experience to the position through his background in both international and collegiate coaching.

“We are now focusing on how we can build off our success from the 2012 Olympic Games. We are looking to expand and further capitalize on our collegiate and club structures – the strengths of the American rowing system. Curtis is a great team builder and will be responsible for bringing our stakeholders together as a unified force.”

Jordan welcomes the challenges of the next quadrennial leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“I aim to create a cooperative, well coordinated team of coaches and athletes focused on 2016,” said Jordan.
 
For more information, contact Allison Frederick, USRowing Communications Manager, at 609-751-0710 or Allison@usrowing.org.

About USRowing
USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of rowing in the United States. USRowing’s official suppliers include Boathouse Sports, Vespoli, WinTech, Filippi, Croker Oars, Rudy Project, Concept2, Nielsen Kellerman, PowerHTV and Ludus Tours. USRowing also receives generous support from the National Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors and partners ANXeBusiness Corp, Voxer, EZ Dock, EMCVenues and The Perfect SNAQUE. For more information, visit www.usrowing.org. USRowing created The Row to London to engage sponsors leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games, with proceeds going to help ensure the U.S. team’s success. Opportunities also exist to partner with America Rows – supporting diversity initiatives and adaptive programs. For more information, please contact Beth Kohl at beth@usrowing.org.

Allison Frederick

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