Image Credit: World Rowing
How do you define greatness? A mind-bending feat that surpasses expectation and rationality? A moment of authentic surprise that inverts the weight of pressing odds? Or perhaps an incision in the linear unfurling of your heart?
In sport, we are quick to anoint greatness upon each other. A performance that impresses us is often bestowed the virtue of greatness before it can even truly be understood. It is easy to attach brilliance onto bravery and boldness but sometimes the two should not be conflated. True greatness should combine mastery, magnanimity and more than a hint of magic.
The Olympic Games is our ultimate magic show. A procession of truly elite talent, operating at the pinnacle of their sport and thrust forward into a limelight fostered by four years of relative translucency. These two weeks are stitched into the very fabric of competition, dating back to the lore of Ancient Greece, and have transcended the politics of modern society to become the ultimate marker in sporting excellence. To win Olympic Gold gives you immortality of a rare and timeless specification – your story will be perpetuated forevermore, carried forward by the whispers of generations to come, who too aim to climb those sacred steps and join this club of champions. Emerging over the horizon, this time in the blue and red hue of palatial Paris, we are ready for the very fastest in rowing to be crowned.
Step forward, my friends – The Olympic Games have come.
The Stats
Country
Netherlands
Crew
Karolien Florijn
Age
26 years
Olympic Record
Silver in the W4- at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
2024 Competitive Record
2024 World Rowing Cup 1: 1st (W1X)
2024 World Rowing Cup 2: 1st (W1X)
2024 World Rowing Cup 3: N/A
2024 European Championships: N/A
Other: N/A
The Profile
Karolien Florijn is the most outstanding sculler in the world right now. She made her senior debut in 2016 whilst still a junior, and the following year, as a 19-year-old, won senior medals at the opening 2024 World Rowing Cup and the 2024 European championships, as well as U23 world gold. In 2018 she was a member of the quad that won world and European bronze and the following year she switched back to sweep, winning the European title in the coxless four and ending the season with world championship silver. She continued in the four for Olympic year and went unbeaten throughout the season until the Games themselves, where the Dutch were pushed into silver by Australia. However, it’s post-Tokyo where Florijn has pushed her – already impressive – career to another level. In 2022, she switched to the single and is currently unbeaten. She is not just unbeaten though – in two years, no-one has really come close to her. She won the 2022 world title by three seconds and by five seconds last year. She’s currently on a nine-race winning streak, a feat that has only been bettered by the legendary Ekaterina Karsten (who produced a run of 15 unbeaten events between 2005-2008). It will be a major shock if Florijn doesn’t take the gold in Paris. If she does, it’ll be the first time the Netherlands have won an Olympic medal in this event (their best previous result was fourth in 1988 – the last time the Netherlands had a women’s single sculler in an Olympic final).
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