Interview With Philippe Romé

Philippe Romé, Swedish Champion. Photo Courtesy Peter Petersson.

Loyal HTBS reader and contributor Hélène Rémond in Rennes, France, helped a fellow French journalist to look for people from France living in Sweden, who wanted to be interviewed for Jobtrotter. Each month the site is interviewing Frenchmen living abroad to hear how it is to live in another country. This month it was Sweden’s turn. As the interviews are in French, Hélène has been kind enough to edit and rewrite one interesting interview. (Click here to read the interview in French.) Hélène writes,

I discovered my fellow countryman Philippe Romé thanks to a HTBS post about the Swedish Rowing Sprint Championships held in Malmö. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to talk about rowing, so I contacted this French rower, who is a Swedish rowing champion. Philippe actually comes from Redon, in Brittany, which is close to my hometown. It was also an opportunity to put him in the spotlight in a way. Just like his father, he used to row in Rennes, at the Société des Régates Rennaises, the oldest sporting club in the city, founded in 1867.

Philippe has now lived in Sweden for three years, after living with his Swedish girlfriend during four years, before the birth of their first child. He works as a “sportchef’, and coach at Mölndal Rowing Club, in the suburbs of Göteborg, on the Swedish west coast. He trains adults, young teenagers, and school children on all levels. He also organizes special events for companies, for ‘teambuilding’, "which is a popular concept in Sweden," Philippe says. An annual regatta is also organized, as well as the Swedish Championships every third year.

In the picture Philippe Romé is standing in front of "victory wreaths". It is an old tradition in Sweden that Swedish Champions in many sports receive a laurel wreath as a sign of their victory and superiority.

He is also an unofficial rowing captain of the club. Of course, he rows, and is a national champion. “I row in every boat, from single sculls to eights either bowside or strokeside”, he explains. He recently won in the coxless pairs at the Borås Head of the River. He tends to row a bit less now since the birth of his second daughter, in October 2010.

In Sweden, he appreciates the quality of life, and the care for the well-being of everyone in the society.

The photograph on top is signed by Peter Petersson, who is a member of Philippe’s crew in the 4- and 8+. “When Peter doesn’t row, he takes photos’, Philippe says. Have a look at Peter’s website.

Hélène – thank you for an interesting article. I would also like to wish Philippe Romé good luck in Mölndal both with his family and his rowing – keep those oars wet!

Well Done, Frida!

She might not be the tallest, biggest, or even the strongest, but in the women's single scull final in the World Championships on Lake Karapiro, Frida Svensson of Sweden was the fastest and therefore the best! The photograph above, from Row2k.com, says it all. This means that the 29-year-old Frida, who rows for Falkenberg Rowing Club, broke the winning streak of Ekatarina Karsten, who has six world championships in the single under her belt. According to Swedish newspaper articles, the Swede's tactics for the race was simple: go out as hard as possible and try to stay in the lead. Or as we would say in Sweden: "det må bära eller brista" ["sink or swim", which in this case seems to be a mixed metaphor!]. Read FISA's article "Respectless Svensson shows no mercy" here.

My warmest congratulation to Frida, her coach Johan Flodin, and the Swedish Rowing Federation!

Here are some interviews with Frida Svensson and other world champions:

French Victory In Malmö

Last weekend, on 17-18 July, the Swedish Rowing Sprint Championships were held in my old hometown of Malmö. The 600-metre course was a straight stretch on the Malmö Canal in the centre of town. As the canal is very narrow and can only take two boats abreast several heats were needed to get to the two finalists in each class. My good, old club, Malmö Roddklubb, was the host, together with the regional rowing federation, Skånes Roddförbund. The event went very smoothly, the weather was great, and all the races were televised by the major Swedish national TV-station. I hope that Swedish rowing will get a real good boost out of all this hoopla.

One of the hardest races was in the men’s single scull, lightweight, where Kevin Hermansson (Kungälv RK) met Philippe Romé (Mölndals RK). Romé, who is from France and living with his Swedish girlfriend and their daughter in Göteborg, gave everything he had, and a little more, to become the Swedish Champion in the single scull, lightweight.

Below you can watch the race. The commentaries are in Swedish, and one of the voices belongs to rowing expert Henrik Nilsson, an old Blue who rowed for Oxford in 1998 and 1999, the only Swede who has competed in The Boat Race up to this date.



Following is a short interview in English with Philippe Romé.



Enjoy Hélène!

An Oarsman's Dress Code

Above is a wonderful photograph from 1886 of some distinguished oarsmen of Malmö Roddklubb, my Swedish rowing club. At that time, the colours of the club shirt were yellow and dark blue, with blue pants, and a blue cap. The club was officially founded two years earlier, in 1884, but rowing had been going on in town several years before the club saw the light of day. The picture is from a prize celebration at the restaurant in Kungsparken [the King’s Park], a park that open in 1872. When I rowed in Malmö, you could row on the canals that surrounded the Old Town, which was a 4,5-kilometre (2.8 miles) long stretch. A part of the canals actually runs through the lovely Kungsparken and you can see the restaurant from the water. Nowadays it has been turned into a casino.

With an old club like this come a lot of good stories and anecdotes. One is from the 1930s and involves the restaurant in Kungsparken. The club’s most prominent oarsman during this time was Sture Olsson, who became Swedish Champion in the single scull three times, in 1929, 1934, and 1935. (Olsson is seen in the photograph on the left, just having received a championship wreath after winning one of those finals.) At one of the summer club banquets, the members were all dressed up in ‘top hat, white tie, and tails’ and gathered outside the restaurant in Kungsparken. They were waiting for Sture Olsson, who seemed to have been delayed. Suddenly, they could hear something approaching the restaurant from the canal side. There was Olsson, sculling in his shell; he had rowed from the boathouse in the dress code of the evening: top hat, white tie, and tails.

And these days, you have a problem getting all the men in the club to wear a tie for a club dinner!