17 December 2021
By Göran R Buckhorn
USRowing announced yesterday that Tom Terhaar, the women’s national team coach, is departing to take the position as Director of Rowing at Columbia University.
Terhaar, who has been head of the women’s program for 21 years, led the U.S. women’s eight to 11 consecutive world and Olympic titles from 2006 to 2016, including three Olympic gold medals and eight world championship golds.
“While I did not have much time with Tom since beginning in my role last year, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet him and know that he will be missed,” Amanda Kraus, USRowing’s CEO, said in a statement. “We certainly wish him all the best in his new role at Columbia and hope our paths cross on the Harlem River.”
Terhaar joined USRowing as the women’s head coach in 2001 after serving at the lightweight men’s coach at Columbia University. It was in 2006, his women’s eight started its 11-year winning streak, after the U.S. eight had won the 2002 World Championship title in Seville and the women’s four took a gold at the worlds the following year. At the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, the women’s eight took a silver medal.
In 2007, Tom Terhaar was named the United States Olympic Committee’s Coach of the Year for Rowing and was a finalist for the USOC’s National Coach of the Year Award in 2007. He was named World Rowing Coach of the Year in 2009.
Terhaar has also been successful in coaching the women’s quadruple sculls with his crews winning a gold medal in 2015, silver medals in 2009 and 2011 and bronze medals in 2012 and 2014, USRowing writes in a statement. He coached the women’s pair to gold in 2009, silver in 2014 and 2017 and bronze in 2010 and 2015.
Terhaar rowed collegiately at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a degree in English.