In 2019, we wrote: “Casual rowing fans can be forgiven for not knowing who Oliver Zeidler is.” A full Olympic quadrennium later, there are no excuses. The giant German swimmer-turned-sculler notched another championship year in 2023, seizing the world championship from The Netherland’s Simon Van Dorp after winning Henley’s Diamond Challenge Sculls in July “easily”—Henley’s official term for margins over five lengths.
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It wasn’t a perfect year for Zeidler. At the European Rowing Championships in May, he finished third behind Dutch winner Lennart Van Lierop and the defending Olympic champion, Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos. Zeidler finished second in his first heat at Lucerne but then won his quarterfinal and semifinal races before completing his 2023 Rowing World Cup sweep—winning in Zagreb, Varese, and Lucerne.
At the world championships, defending champion Zeidler won his heat, quarterfinal, semifinal, and the final. Van Lierop raced in the Dutch quad that won and countryman Simon Van Dorp won the silver in the single. New Zealand’s Thomas Mackintosh got his bowball across the line less than a quarter-second ahead of Ntouskos for the bronze.
Less than two and half seconds separated the top four at Worlds, and elite athletes don’t get slower usually for the Olympics, so Zeidler will have plenty of competition again in Paris. But as the two-time defending world champ, he enters as the favorite.
