Sept. 27, 2004

NEW YORK -- John Parker, an accomplished rower and coach who is a veteran of national and international competition, has been named assistant men's lightweight coach at Columbia.

Parker is returning to the coaching ranks for the first time since 1999. For the past five years, he has maintained a studio in Brooklyn, N.Y., and performed as a visual artist and composer. He will continue in that field while coaching the lightweights.

Parker most recently served as assistant coach of the United States National Men's Heavyweight Team. During 1998-99, he assisted head coach Mike Teti with the team, which won two world championship gold medals with the heavyweight eight and one with the Men's 2+. He also coached the heavyweight and lightweight 4- and 2-.

He began coaching in 1990, as men's freshman lightweight coach at Princeton, his alma mater. Under his guidance, the Tigers captured several Eastern Sprints medals, including a gold in the first freshman eights race in 1993. They also won three second freshman titles.

In 1993, he was named freshman coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Washington. His first eight won the IRA national championship in 1997, completing a historic Washington sweep, as the Huskies' varsity and junior varsity also were victorious. Parker's eight was second at the IRA in 1998, and took three Pacific Coast championships.

Following the 1998 season, he joined the national team program.

A former Groton School oarsman, Parker was a three-year stroke of the Princeton varsity heavyweight crew. An Eastern Sprints medalist, he also earned two gold medals at Canadian Henley with the Potomac Boat Club while attending Princeton, and rowed with the U.S. Pre-Elite Team.

In 1989, Parker was named to the U.S. National Team. He rowed in heavyweight eights, fours, and pairs at numerous national championships, winning national and international gold and silver medals. In 1992, he stroked the U.S. men's heavyweight eight to fourth place at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1989, and his master's in fine arts from Penn in 2001.