Khaled Sanad was hired as Colgate’s head men’s rowing coach in September 2000.
During his tenure at Colgate, he has overseen the transition from club status to an upper-level varsity program.
Sanad began his rowing career at age 15 and was placed into the Egypt National Team training program just one year later. During a decade of competition, Sanad won seven Egyptian national titles. He qualified for the 1992 Olympics in both rowing and boxing, unfortunately the Egyptian Olympic committee did not have the funds to support rowing and he was unable to compete. During this time he attended the Sports Science School in Cairo.
Following the end of his rowing career, Sanad served in the Egyptian army, where he worked as an engineer, searching for land mines and clearing areas where they had been planted.
After training almost exclusively in Egypt and Europe during his career, Sanad was given an invitation to coach the Dutch National Team. He declined, deciding instead to come to the United States in 1994 to learn alternative training techniques. It was here that he began his illustrious coaching career, beginning with a position at Grand Valley University, a college where he could simultaneously coach and continue his research on physiology.
In his final stop before coming to Colgate, Sanad coached the Penn AC elite, one of the most prestigious rowing clubs in the country, for the 2000 Olympic trials. It was at the Olympic trials that he was first informally offered the Colgate position.
Sanad later moved on to coach the Egyptian National Team. In 2004, one of his rowers, Aly Ibrahim, asked Sanad to help him prepare for the upcoming Olympics. Sanad acquiesced, and brought Ibrahim to Colgate to train. With Sanad advising him Ibrahim finished 14th at Athens.
His knowledge of the sport and innovation in coaching has allowed Colgate men’s rowing, a non-scholarship sport, to compete with programs that have a tremendous advantage in funding and tradition.
In the spring of 2002, Colgate announced itself as an emerging program by finishing third at the ECAC Championship. Sanad continued his success by leading the men’s straight four to a gold medal at the IRA Championship in the spring of 2004. This marked the first national championship that any Colgate team has ever won, and it came only five years after Sanad arrived. He followed that the next year by coaching the Raiders to a second-place finish in the same event.
In the summer 2005, Khaled acted as visiting head coach for the Alaska Midnight Sun Rowing Association at the World Masters Games held in Edmonton, Alberta.
2005-06 marked Colgate’s first win at the Head of the Charles, as they captured the gold medal in the collegiate four. At the Knecht Cup, seven boats placed in their respective finals with five boats medaling. The Raiders won the Seneca Cup for the second straight year, sweeping all Hobart boats. At the Patriot League Challenge, Colgate won the varsity 4 and second varsity 4, while placing third in the varsity 8. The coxed varsity 4 earned a silver medal at the ECAC Championship and placed third in the petite final at the IRA Regatta.
During the 2006-07 season Colgate won its second consecutive collegiate four title at the Head of the Charles. The squad also retained the Seneca Cup with double wins over Hobart and took gold in the second varsity 4 at the Knecht Cup. The Raiders finished first in both the Second Varsity 8 and the Varsity 4, and second in the Varsity 8 race of the Patriot League Challenge. Colgate was in contention for the crown in the Varsity 8 of the ECAC Championship, but the race was called due to high winds. The Raiders’ straight four finished fifth in the nation at the IRA Regatta, while the coxed four finished fifth in the petite final. In July Colgate's eight raced in the Henley Royal Regatta in London. The Raiders shocked the crowd in the first round of the Temple Cup, defeating reigning champion Oxford Brookes, and followe dup with a win over Trinity College (Dublin) to reach the semifinals. In the all-American semis, Colgate was edged by Cornell by a quarter of a length after the Raiders led the race for the first three-quarters of a mile. The Raiders also raced two coxed fours in the Prince Albert Cup, with the A boat making it to the second round.
In 2007-08 the varsity eight started the season winning the Head of the Genesee, and won the Head of the Fish along with four other Raider boats. Finishing the fall season, Colgate won seven of eight races at the Philadelphia Frostbute and Bill Braxton Regattas. The Raiders retained the Seneca Cup for the fourth straight season, defeating Hobart in the annual event and made history at the Dad Vail Regatta, reaching the finals in all three events. Colgate raced its eight, second eight and freshman four at the IRA in June.
