Lesleh Anderson Wright
Lesleh started her rowing career in St. Catharines, Canada 50 years ago. Her family were all involved in rowing. Her Dad was a captain and president of the club and her Mom worked tirelessly as a volunteer for over 40 years, and her brother Scott was a lightweight Canadian National Team oarsman and is now a Rowing Canada U23 Coach.
Lesleh started out as a rower, and was encouraged to make the transition to coxswain in the summer of 1976 while a freshman in high school. She made her first Canadian National Team in 1977 at 16 with a crew from her hometown racing the 4+. She competed on the National Team through 1986. In 1980, following the boycott of the Olympics she was recruited to race with four Canadian men at the Royal Henley Regatta in England and was the first Canadian woman to participate. She competed in the 1984 Olympics in the women's 8 and continued on the Canadian Team through 1986, when she retired to start a family. Eric, Kendall, Eden, Rae and Delaney soon rounded out her "home crew".
In 2005 she was recruited by her brother to cox his master's crew at the Head of the Charles and Lesleh's passion for the sport was renewed. She has raced in Boston every year since. With 30+ trips down the Charles river, she has multiple wins as well as two course records with amazing Chinook crews.
Lesleh was the Head Coach at ZLAC from 2013-2015 but had a lot on her plate at the time and needed to step down. She was the coxswains coach for the Oxford University Women's team in the UK from 2012-2016 and has seen two of her coxswains go on to make the GB Team. She is currently the junior high performance coach at Tempe Junior Crew in Arizona, and is the coach of the Rio Salado Master's Team.
Lesleh is a co-founder of Chinook Performance Racing, from which she recently retired. She is the owner and coach at SteeringUwright, LLC, which conducts rowing camps all over the world. "I love this sport. I love the people. I especially love the opportunity to help people improve their efficiency and speed, and as a coxswain I still love being in the driver's seat!"