The case series presents the governance and leadership challenges and opportunities the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation (Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei Bond, or KNRB for short), which is a not-for-profit top sports federation. The series presents eight years of the KNRB's history starting with the aftermath of the Bejing 2008 Olympics, then reviews the preparation to the London 2012 Olympics and concludes with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. The much improved results obtained by the rowers in Rio confirm that, by that time, the KNRB was back to effective functioning and great performance. A detailed account of how an organizational turnaround is led by the board, let alone by the board of a major sports federation, is rare. Given the problems faced by major sports federations over the last decades the case shows that these problems indeed have their roots in governance failure.

The case series presents the governance and leadership challenges and opportunities the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation (Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei Bond, or KNRB for short). The KNRB is a not-for-profit top sports federation. A series of astonishing scandals have afflicted top sports federations over the last number of years (International Cycling Federation, Russian Ministry of Sports and the FIFA scandal which led to Sepp Blatter's infamous demise). The case series illustrates the role played by poor governance in allowing and being ultimately responsible for such scandals, good governance considerably reducing the probability of their occurrences. The series presents eight years of the KNRB's history starting with the aftermath of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, then reviewing the preparation to the London 2012 Olympics and concludes with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. The much improved results obtained by the rowers in Rio confirm that, by that time, the KNRB is back to effective functioning and great performance.