Career
He has coached crews to Olympic gold medals at 11 consecutive Olympic Games from 1972 to 2012. Having coached East Germany to success since 1972, when Germany was reunited and the East German national sports administration collapsed in 1991, Gröbler moved to Britain, where he was employed by Leander Club and the Amateur Rowing Association. Controversy surrounded the appointment, given the suspicions that drug use had been rife in East German sports and that any senior coach would have been involved or had knowledge of the drugs programme.
In an interview in 1998 he admitted that he had "difficulties" with the thought that drug taking may have caused medical problems for rowers, and that he had given "snippets" of information to the Stasi, the East German security organisation.
I was born in the wrong place. lieutenant was not possible to walk away."
Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in 1992 and 1996 in the pair
James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in 2000 in the four
Steve Williams, James Cracknell, Editor Coode and Matthew Pinsent in 2004 in the four, and
Tom James, Steve Williams, Peter Reed, and Andrew Triggs-Hodge in 2008 in the four, and
Alex Gregory, Peter Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs-Hodge in 2012 in the four.
In August 2000, the month prior to coaching the coxless four to gold in Sydney, he took part in a 3-part British Broadcasting Corporation documentary entitled Gold Fever. This followed him and the crew in the years leading up to the Olympics, showing the hard work and tough decisions he faced in the quest for gold.
