Rowing Canada CEO Terry Dillon to step down ahead of Paris Games

Rowing Canada chief executive officer Terry Dillon will step down next month ahead of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Dillon has been CEO of the country's governing body of the sport for the past seven years.

His resignation is effective June 30, Rowing Canada said Wednesday in a statement posted on its website.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, but I know it is the right one at the right time," Dillon said in the statement.

"I took this job to make a difference and I am proud of what we achieved."

Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Rowing Canada's director of partnerships and sport development, will serve as interim CEO starting July 1.

Olympic rowing runs July 27 to Aug. 3 at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium and Paralympic rowing from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 at Vaires-Torcy leisure complex.

Canada's women's eight, which won gold in Tokyo, and the women's lightweight double have qualified for Paris.

The men's eight and women's quadruple sculls will attempt to join them at a last-chance Olympic qualifier May19-21 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Rowing Canada conducted a review of its high-performance culture in 2022.

Head coach Dave Thompson was dismissed in 2020 after athlete complaints of bullying and maltreatment.

Rowing Canada said it was committed to accepting, adopting and exceeding all of the recommendations in a report issued in 2022 by the law firm Rubin-Thomlinson.

"We navigated a global pandemic, through the Community Sport for All program, we opened the doors of our boathouses a little wider and invited over 4,000 Canadians from under-represented groups to try rowing for the first time," Dillon said in Wednesday's statement.

Rowing Canada said further updates to the organization's leadership