John Lindberg enters his second season with the Harvard-Radcliffe program in 2025-26.
Lindberg joined the team in 2024-25, helping lead the team to its best national finish in recent memory, earning a silver medal in the varsity eight and a bronze medal in the varsity four at IRA Championships. He and Head Coach Stacey Apfelbaum's staff earned CRCA Coaching Staff of the Year in 2025.
Before he got to Harvard in 2024–25, John Lindberg built a distinguished career with more than 20 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels. After volunteering with Boston University in 2009, he joined the staff full-time under head coach Thomas Bohrer and helped guide the Terriers to sustained national success.
At BU, Lindberg’s crews consistently advanced to IRA Championship finals. In 2017–18, the program reached the IRA semifinals in all four boats for the fifth straight year, sent the 3V8 and V4 to the grand finals, and placed eighth nationally in Ten Eyck points. The 2016–17 squad finished sixth at IRAs, and during that dual season BU defeated Brown to secure the Michalson Cup, completing a sweep of all six of their annual cup races for the first time in school history. The Terriers also topped Northeastern by open water to win the Arlett Cup for the third year in a row.
Earlier highlights included the program’s first IRA medal in eights rowing when the second varsity eight earned bronze in 2015, followed by silver at Eastern Sprints that same year. The 2V also won bronze at Sprints in 2016, marking back-to-back podium finishes. Between 2010 and 2014, BU steadily rose in national standing, with the freshmen going undefeated in dual racing in 2010, the varsity earning top-six IRA finishes in 2011 and 2012, and the team capturing the 2014 Chapman Award for most improved program after a 51-point jump in IRA scoring.
Before his tenure at BU, Lindberg worked as an account executive for Resolute Racing Shells and coached at Northeastern, where he led recruiting and the freshman squad to multiple medal-winning seasons. He also served as a U.S. coach at the U23 World Championships.
Lindberg’s rowing career began at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he won the Princess Elizabeth Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. He went on to row at Brown University under legendary coach Steve Gladstone before representing the United States in the double sculls at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba. He continues to race in masters sculling.
John and his wife, Maria, have two sons, Kurt and Carl.
