Dick Tonks
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| Full name | Richard William Tonks | ||||||||||||
| Born |
21 February 1951 Whanganui, New Zealand |
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Medal record
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Richard "Dick" William Tonks MNZM (born 21 February 1951) is a former national New Zealand rowing coach and a former rower who won a silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.Through his coaching career he has coached crews to a total of 25 World Championship medals—including thirteen gold—and a total of seven Olympic medals—six of which were gold.
Dick Tonks' father, Alan Tonks, was an accomplished rower and coach, and it is presumed that his influence was a major factor in Dick's taking up rowing at Wanganui Boys' College at the age of thirteen.He first competed at the Wanganui Secondary Schools Regatta in 1965 and subsequently—coached by his father—rowed in the school's first eight for three years.
In 1970, back at the sport, he rowed for Otago in Dunedin and was able to earn a place on the national team in 1971. By 1972 he was stroking the New Zealand coxless four, alongside Ross Collinge, Dudley Storey and Noel Mills. The boat went on to win silver at the Munich Olympics, beaten by half a boat-length by the East German crew.
Curiously, Tonks never won a national title, coming second in the single scull to Murray Watkinson in 1974 and never being part of a strong enough club to win in larger boats.
Though he coached while rowing, Tonks returned to coaching in 1989 when he was asked to coach a women's four at the Union club, in Wanganui. As well as drawing Tonks on the path to coaching success, this also led to his second marriage to Florence Matthews, a member of the four.
In 1994 world champion scullers Philippa Baker and Brenda Lawson asked Tonks to coach them in the double, leading to gold at Indianapolis, bronze at Tampere in 1995 and making the final at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
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