Nick Porzig
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's rowing | ||
Representing  Australia
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| Olympic Games | ||
 |
2000 Sydney | Eights |
Nicholas Weston Porzig (born 1 July 1972 in Cape Town) is a South African-born rower who competed for Australia from 1993 to 2000. He rowed in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics in the men's VIII. He won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics.
Nick learned to row at St Stithians College, Johannesburg, under Paul Jackson who later coached South African rowing teams at World Championship and Olympic level.
In 1989, Nick and his family immigrated to Perth, Australia, where he continued to row at Hale School and then at Curtin University Rowing club, under the eye of Tony Lovrich. Tony rowed for Australia in the 1984 Olympics in LA, winning a silver medal in the men's Quad event. The winner of that event was the Federal Republic of Germany, less than a second ahead of Australia.
At Curtin University RC, Tony had built up a successful high performance sweep men's squad, which provided a stepping stone for Nick from school rowing into the more competitive interstate scene. Nick rowed in the West Australian Kings Cups eight in 1992 in the National Championships at Carrum in Victoria. Western Australia came second behind Victoria, who had within their crew members of the Awesome Foursome who went on to win gold in the Barcelona Olympics later that year. Other members of the 1992 Olympic team in that race included Jamie Fernandez (SA) and Peter Murphy (Vic).
In 1993, Nick applied and won a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. The men's squad that year consisted of members of the 1996 Men's Eight(Jaime Fernandez and Wayne Diplock), who came 5th in Barcelona, and members of the Australian under 23 eight (Shane McLaughlin, Marcus Hanna and Jason McFadden), who had won the typically hard fought Trans Tasman series against New Zealand.
In Canberra, Nick was initially teamed up with Robert Jahrling, son of Harald Jahrling who competed and won gold for East Germany in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics. The pairing was successful, with Nick and Rob winning the early 5 km time trials by some margin, while recording record times. However, coach Reinhold Batschi broke up the pairing and Nick was placed with Jaime( Hamma) Fernandez.
To be continued..
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